Journalist Rajeev Sharma, who was arrested by the Delhi police under the Official Secrets Act, did not have any ‘classified documents’ in his possession. Police seized his mobile, laptop and a draft copy of his book on the Home Minister of India during the raid at his house, said senior advocate Adish Aggarwala, who is representing the journalist.
Mr. Aggarwala said Mr. Sharma was arrested on September 14 at around 10.30 p.m., when he was driving on the Rohtak Road in Delhi and at 3 a.m. On September 15, a police team raided his house in Pitampura.
During the search operation, police seized his mobile, laptop, passport, I-T files, LIC policies, a draft copy of a book on the Home Minister and other materials.
‘Not a crime’
If the police have found the ‘classified document’ from his possession on the day one and then why did they wait four days to make the public, asked Mr. Aggarwala.
"We are not denying that he was working for a Chinese news organisation. The only dispute is the police’s claim that they have found incriminating evidence, which is not true. Many people travel on sponsored trips and that is not a crime,” he added.
He added that Delhi police in a press conference clearly stated that they won’t be questioning defence personnel over the leak of classified documents. Stating that he must have got the documents from someone, Mr. Aggarwala said Mr. Sharma had not printed the document at home.
Stating that the police had not found any document from Mr. Sharma’s house and it took four days for them to come up with the cooked up story after they planted ‘classified document’ Mr. Aggarwala said.
The lawyer said Mr. Sharma represented Global Times from 2014-16 and the organisation had paid him during the period. The journalist had been invited to China by the newspaper and he had travelled to China on a sponsored strip. A lot of people from China are working here and several Indians are working there. There’s nothing wrong in that, Mr. Aggarwala added.