Defence Cops canrsquot rely on intercepted phone calls

  • | Saturday | 30th March, 2019

Quoting the charge sheet, he pointed out that the police during investigations had recovered number of letters, but their source was not known. The charge sheet filed was incomplete if the police had failed to supply copies of the cloned data to the activists, he said. He said one Sagar Gorkhe had raised objectionable slogans for creating division between two communities in the event, but he was not an accused before the court. He said there was no evidence to show that Raut had given funds for organizing the Parishad.He submitted that there was also no evidence to suggest that the funds collected for the Parishad were used for organizing the Koregaon Bhima agitation on January 1, 2018. The names of the communities did not figure in the FIR lodged with the Vishrambaug police and the charge sheet filed against the activists in the court, he said.The defence relied on statements of prosecution witnesses Shivdas Ghatkar, Kishore Kamble, Datta Pol and Akash Sable to show that the names of the communities did not reflect in their evidence.

Pune: Defence lawyer Shahid Akhtar on Friday told the special court that the police could not rely on the electronic evidence pertaining to interception of telephonic communications if its copies had not been supplied to the activists arrested in the Elgar Parishad case.Quoting Section 46 (admissibility of evidence collected through the interception of communication) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), Akhtar said the police could not bank on the electronic evidence collected if they had failed to furnish its copies to his client, Mahesh Raut. The law mandated the police to serve the copy of the order passed by the competent authority under the UAPA to intercept communications to the accused, but that did not happen, he said, arguing on Raut’s bail plea.Citing the FIR, he said all progressive organizations had come together and contributed Rs10,000 each for organizing the Parishad at Shaniwarwada on December 31, 2017. He said one Sagar Gorkhe had raised objectionable slogans for creating division between two communities in the event, but he was not an accused before the court. The names of the communities did not figure in the FIR lodged with the Vishrambaug police and the charge sheet filed against the activists in the court, he said.The defence relied on statements of prosecution witnesses Shivdas Ghatkar, Kishore Kamble, Datta Pol and Akash Sable to show that the names of the communities did not reflect in their evidence. He said there was no evidence to show that Raut had given funds for organizing the Parishad.He submitted that there was also no evidence to suggest that the funds collected for the Parishad were used for organizing the Koregaon Bhima agitation on January 1, 2018. Quoting the charge sheet, he pointed out that the police during investigations had recovered number of letters, but their source was not known. He said they talked of “struggle areas”, but the police did not identify them, nor lodged separate FIRs of incidents there.The lawyer quoted the prosecution’s say opposing the bail plea of his client and argued that the forensic laboratory had returned the cloned data and mirror images to police, but their copies were not provided to Raut and others. The charge sheet filed was incomplete if the police had failed to supply copies of the cloned data to the activists, he said.

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