Delhi riots: Police tells HC plea for giving videos of protests against CAA not maintainable
New Delhi: The city police has told the Delhi High Court that a plea moved by JNU student and Pinjra Tod activist Devangana Kalita, accused in a case related to northeast Delhi riots, seeking copies of videos of protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was not maintainable.
The issue regarding maintainability of the plea was raised before Justice Suresh K Kait by Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the Delhi Police.
"Let the respondent (police) file an affidavit on the maintainability aspect within a week, with advance copy furnished to the other side. Response thereto, if any, be filed within five days thereafter," the court said and listed the matter for further hearing on February 4.
Kalita, in her plea filed through advocates Adit S Pujari, Tusharika Mattoo and Kunal Negi, has sought copies of videos of protests against the CAA and other electronic data available with the police in the matter that were filed along with the charge sheet in the case.
While Kalita is in judicial custody in the case under the stringent anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, she has been granted bail in the case related to the riots in Jaffarabad area.
Earlier, before the trial court, Kalita's counsel had sought copies of a pen drive containing video clips between February 22, 2020 and February 26, 2020; DVD containing video clips of incident on February 25, 2020 and CD containing photographs and video clips of the accused; DVD containing video clips of protests of January 5, 2020 and DVD containing video clips under Jaffarabad metro station between February 22, 2020 and February 23, 2020.
Communal violence had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 last year after clashes between the citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control, leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.
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NEET aspirant from Haryana hangs self in Kota; parents suspect murder, demand fair probe
Kota (Rajasthan), Apr 29: A 20-year-old NEET aspirant was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his hostel room in Kunhari area here, with his parents suspecting he was murdered, police said on Monday.
This is the eighth case of suicide by a coaching student in Kota since January. The number of student suicides in Kota stood at 26 in 2023.
Sumit Panchal, who hailed from Haryana's Rohtak, had been preparing for NEET at a coaching institute here for over a year, the police said.
His parents have demanded the registration of a murder case against unidentified persons and an impartial investigation into the matter.
On demand of the student's parents, a medical board was constituted to perform the autopsy, said Assistant Sub-Inspector Kaptan, who is investigating the case.
The body was handed over to the family after the post-mortem, they said.
The student had allegedly hanged himself around 9 hours before his body was spotted by the hostel staff, the ASI said.
Panchal's body was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his room at the hostel in Landmark City under the Kunhari police station limits on Sunday night, they said.
However, his parents suspected Panchal was murdered, citing that the injury on his neck from the rope was too deep to be caused by hanging, the police said.
A case of unnatural death under section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code has been lodged for initial investigation in the matter, they said.
No suicide note was recovered from the student's hostel room and the reason behind his extreme step is yet to be ascertained, Arvind Bhardwaj, Circle Inspector (CI) at Kunhari police station, said on Monday.
Panchal was supposed to take the NEET-UG exam next month, the police said.
He allegedly hanged himself sometime on Sunday noon but the matter came to light only around 9.30 pm when the warden spotted the body and informed the police, the CI said.
A police team rushed to the spot and recovered the body and shifted it to the mortuary of MBS Hospital for postmortem, he added.
In gross violation of safety norms, the hostel room did not have an anti-suicide device installed with the ceiling fan, which could have averted the tragedy, the officer added.
Meanwhile, the deceased's father, uncle and grandfather who reached Kota on Monday morning to claim the body suspected foul play and claimed Panchal did not commit suicide but was murdered.
"Sumit was good at studies and would always assure us of securing a rank among the top ten. He cannot commit suicide," his uncle Surendra Panchal told PTI outside the mortuary.
The wound on his neck is so deep that it couldn't have been caused by hanging, he claimed and demanded autopsy by medical board.
The student's family has also demanded the formation of a SIT for investigation in the matter, CI Bhardwaj said.
