13 Nov 13 2002
IFTIKHAR GILANI REFUSED BAIL,
MOVES SESSIONS COURT
From Our Delhi Bureau
NEW
DELHI: Ignoring Police itself retracting and admitting only a day
earlier that the controversial military document recovered from
journalist Iftikhar Gilani's computer was extracted from a
publication, a Delhi court on Wednesday refused him bail saying
"prima facie the circumstances and conduct is enough to draw a
presumption against him."
In a clear case of
non-application of mind, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Sangita
Dhingra Sehgal refused to accept even the telltale evidence in the
chargesheet. The 6-page order declining grant of bail refers to some
of the charges that were admitted by Police itself as wrong or
irrelevant during the hearing on the bail application that went on
for five long months.
An application was immediately moved
before the Sessions Court of Mr S N Gupta, challenging the order and
praying for bail, and the case is most likely to be listed for
hearing on Friday.
The CMM in the meanwhile remanded Iftikhar
Gilani, The Kashmir Times's Delhi Bureau, to further judicial remand
up to November 25 when it would hear arguments on framing of the
charges. Iftikhar is charged with violation of the Official Secrets
Act on the basis of the seizure of the document showing deployment of
forces in Jammu and Kashmir.
Prosecution had suo moto filed
Monday evening additional arguments after the bail hearing was closed
for orders to admit that the controversial military document was not
secret but identical to a published document, raising hopes that the
torment of Iftikhar Gilani will be finally over.
A special
hearing was held on Tuesday on this admission by Police but the CMM
refused to buy it as she underlined, in her order, the part of the
Military Intelligence report that the information was compiled by
agent specifically trained to observe and report the strength and
location of the troops directly and information contained therein is
directly useful to the adversary."
In the course of
arguments before the CMM's court, Advocate V K Ohri had cited the
e-mail used against Iftikhar Gilani to show his "inclination
towards liberation of Kashmir" refers to the killings in the
Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and that too by the Pakistani forces
and not in Jammu and Kashmir by the Indian forces.
As if she
did not bother to read the e-mail, CMM asserted in her order that it
is about killings "in encounter by Indian Forces." Even the
email received by Iftikhar from one of his editors in Pakistani daily
"The Nation" to follow activities of slain Hurriyat leader
Lone has been cited by her as if he had anything to do with Lone's
murder.
The judge has also ignored the evidence of the manager
of Agra's Hotel Mughal Sheraton recorded by Police to clear Iftikhar
of the charge that he had taken hospitality of the Pakistan High
Commission as her order simply says "when verified it was
revealed that Gilani had enjoyed his stay in Mughal Sheraton on the
expenses of Government of Pakistan during the visit of General
Musharraf to India."
While accepting Ohri's submission
that the prosecution had taken "too long" to get verified
the source of the information contained in the military document by
the Ministry of External Affairs since the publication came from
Pakistan and that it is still awaited even after five months, the
judge did not choose to comment on this lapse.
In the
application filed before the Sessions Judge, it has been pointed out
that the information was not secret but downloaded from the Internet
and it is available in a publication of the Institute of Strategic
Studies, Islamabad and moreover even the prosecution had agreed in
its submission on November 11 that the information was identical to
the extracts of the publication submitted by the accused.
The
application stressed that the CMM did not consider the plea that the
Police had made blatant lie in the chargesheet that Iftikhar's Agra
hotel expenses were paid by the Pakistan Government and that the
chargesheet did not mention any person other than him though an
offense under section 120-C IPC of conspiracy has been alleged.
It
is further argued in the application that the CMM also failed to
consider the fact that the accused is in no position to tamper with
the witnesses who are all police/Income Tax officials and also failed
to appreciate that he is honourably employed and settled at Delhi,
and is not likely to run away from facing the trial. The Court could
have slapped conditions if so desired to ensure his presence during
the trial, the application said.
It was further pointed out
that refusal of bail will cause Iftikhar to undergo detention for an
alleged of fence "which is purely a matter of technical
interpretation of possession of information obtained from public
domain." END