The Special Cell of the Delhi Police on Thursday raided the office of Mehmood Pracha, an advocate who has been fighting cases in behalf of many accused in the Delhi Riots and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) cases.
The Delhi Police has reportedly said that the raid was conducted on this day, after obtaining a warrant from a local court, in connection with the northeastern Delhi communal violence in February this year.
According to multiple sources, the Special Cell of the Delhi Police seized Pracha's computer and laptop to search for "incriminatin documents" and "metadata of outbox" of the official email address of Pracha's law firm.
A video clip posted by journalist Aditya Menon on Twitter shows that the advocate is pointing out to the police personnel that the seizure of his electronic devices "is in violation of the order". Pracha said that the warrant only allowed the police to examine his devices, but reluctantly agreed to the seizure later.
Notably, the Delhi police had informed a Delhi court back in August that an FIR has been registered in a case related to the alleged use of forged documents as genuine on judicial record in a northeast Delhi riots matter.
The cops had accused advocate Mehmood Pracha of "tutoring" victims to give false statements in riot-related cases, citing a victim's statement for the same, The Wire reported. However, the advocate had denied the allegations against him.
The submissions were made before Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav, who had ordered the police commissioner to issue directions to the Delhi Police Special Cell or the Crime Branch to probe the allegations against the lawyer.
Pracha, who has been appearing for the accused and complainants in several riots cases, later told news agency PTI that if free and fair investigation is conducted in the matter, the real culprits will be found as the police officials had filed the report.
"If free and fair investigation is carried out, the real culprits will be found out as it is the police officials who filed the report," he had said.
Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.
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