Red Fort attack: Delhi HC refuses to allow accused’s plea to meet lawyer at NIA headquarters

The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to pass an order to allow Red Fort blast co-accused Jasir Bilal Wani to have a meeting with his lawyer in the NIA headquarters.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma noted that the accused has failed to show any order passed by the trial court rejecting his prayer to meet his lawyer at the National Investigation Agency (NIA) headquarters here.

The high court said the accused is not a special person, adding that a certain process has to be followed in the court and no new procedure can be made for him.

“You think that I am going to make my own procedure? I would not. This is not a special one,” the judge said.

The court’s remarks were made when Wani’s counsel claimed that the application was orally rejected by the trial court.

“There cannot be any oral rejection. Why are you before me if you do not have the order? First the order of rejection has to be passed then you can challenge it before me… There is a constitutional process which we all follow,” Justice Sharma said.

The NIA arrested Wani, an alleged “active co-conspirator” of suicide bomber Umar Un Nabi on November 17 in connection with the November 10 Red Fort car blast that claimed 15 lives.

On November 18, a trial court remanded him to 10 days in NIA custody.

During the hearing in the high court, Wani’s counsel claimed that a lawyer had gone to the NIA office to meet the accused but the agency denied the meeting and asked them to show a court direction in this regard.

He said when they approached the trial court with an application to this effect, the trial court refused to allow legal ‘mulaqat’ and orally refused to pass an order permitting the accused to meet an advocate of his choice.

The counsel for NIA, however, contended that the accused had not exhausted all the remedies before approaching the high court and that the petition be dismissed.

The high court, while refusing to allow the accused’s plea, said it cannot be accepted that the petitioner has availed all efficacious remedies.

Application was not taken on record or the trial court orally refused to pass an order cannot be a ground to entertain this petition, it said.

The high court, in the alternative, granted liberty to the accused’s counsel to approach the trial court concerned on Saturday for adjudication of his plea in accordance with law.

A resident of Qazigund in Anantnag, Wani was arrested in Srinagar on November 17 for allegedly providing technical support for carrying out terror attacks by modifying drones and attempting to make rockets ahead of the bomb blast, the NIA had said in a statement.

It has termed Wani an alleged active co-conspirator behind the attack, who worked closely with the terrorist, Umar Un Nabi, to plan the “terror carnage”.

Six people have been arrested by the NIA so far in connection with the ‘white collar’ terror plot.

Besides Wani, the other five arrested persons are key accused Amir Rashid Ali and doctors Muzammil Ganaie, Adeel Rather and Shaheena Saeed, besides preacher Maulvi Irfan Ahmed Wagay. They all are presently in NIA custody.