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A Delhi Court has said that there is no hindrance at all on reporting upon contents of charge­sheet and accompanying material in the chargesheet. The order came after Senior Advocate Rebecca John alleged yesterday that Whatsapp chats between accused persons and the other materials from the chargesheet was screenshot by Lawbeat from court proceedings in its reportage in the Delhi Riots larger conspiracy hearing. She had also alleged that this was highly "contemptuous" and the contents of the chargesheet were yet to stand the test of law. Further, she claimed that personal details of the accused including their phone numbers were shared by Lawbeat in public domain.

The Court, without going into the specifics of the case said that there was no curb on media to report any part of the proceedings including the chargesheet or materials in the chargesheet, adding that media persons should be impressed not to take screenshots henceforth during court proceedings.

Lawbeat had reported the Delhi Riots hearing extensively and contents from the chargesheet and supplementary chargesheet were added to the reportage with due diligence about sharing any personal details of the accused. 

While John had pressed that the screenshots shared by Lawbeat be taken down, the Special Public Prosecutor responded, "an appropriate application may be filed for pulling down tweets which have shared screenshots from yesterday’s hearing. I understand that will be more appropriate”

As part of his arguments, the Special Public Prosecutor had made references to Whatsapp chats between various accused persons which were adduced in the chargesheet and supplementary chargesheets.

Karkardooma Court is currently hearing the case concerning the alleged larger conspiracy behind the Delhi Riots. 
 

On 2nd February, Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad made 4-hour long arguments before a Delhi Court of Amitabh Rawat, Additional Sessions Judge (Karkardooma District) today in order to substantiate the argument that the Delhi Riots of 2020 were a pre-planned conspiracy, allegedly, bolstered at behest of Umar Khalid, Khalid Saifi, Sharjeel Imam, Safoora Zargar, Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal, Saleem Malik, Shadab Ahmed, Meeran Haider etc.
 

The Prosecutor highlighted eloquently that there was pre-planned mobilization at behest of the organisers of the “protests” in order to perpetuate violence and that this was evident from not only the statement recorded under section 164 by various witnesses, but also by the CCTVV footage which showed that there are heavy mobilization of people in the Chand Bagh area lanes. CCTV footage filed in the Chargesheet and supplementary chargesheet pointed to the said, pre-mediated and large-scale mobilization he said.