The court, however, agreed with the defence counsel that the "interpretation of the coded words is based upon the police officer's personal subjective interpretation”. Acquitting a man accused of trying to revive militancy in Punjab, a Delhi court has found gaps in the prosecution’s case for trying to implicate him by attributing meaning to his telephonic conversations about crops, the weather, and watering of fields.
Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana acquitted Trilochan Singh, a driver, who was arrested in a Delhi Police Special Cell raid in 2007 as part of its investigation into the 2005 Satyam Cinema and Liberty Cinema bomb blasts. ASJ Rana said the “meaning attempted to be ascribed by the prosecution to the general words like plot, khet, fasal, paani, etc can only be accepted when it rules out the possibility of any error on the part of the police official”.
The court said the “the possibility of any enthusiastic police officer misinterpreting plain and simple words on account of suspicion and over zealous approach cannot be ruled out”.
A total of nine persons were accused, out of which eight pleaded guilty. Trilochan decided to contest his case filed under IPC sections 121A (conspiracy to commit offences or to overawe, by means of criminal force or the show of criminal force, the Central Government or any State Government), 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy), as well as sections of the UAPA Act and the Arms Act.
Police relied on telephonic conversations between a convict, Baljeet Singh, and Trilochan. The court said that on a plain and simple reading of the transcripts, “any conspiracy to commit a terrorist act is not discernible to an ordinary man”. The prosecution had claimed that the accused persons knew that they were under surveillance and were hence speaking in coded words. The court, however, agreed with the defence counsel that the “interpretation of the coded words is based upon the police officer’s personal subjective interpretation”.
The court said there must be some credible material available on record justifying the meaning ascribed to plain and general words by the prosecution. “The words should have either been established as standard phrases in lingua franca used by the criminals or at least there must be a pattern discernible in the words used so that they can be interpreted in a particular manner,” the court said. It said that in the absence of any material on record, “the doubt attached with the perhaps prejudiced or at least loaded interpretation rendered by the prosecution cannot be dispelled with”.
The Special Cell had registered the FIR alleging that the accused persons were connected to Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), a terror outfit based in Germany. It was alleged that BKI had negotiated with militant outfit, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and conspired to overawe the Indian government. The Special Cell had claimed that Trilochan was in touch with BKI outfit member Baljeet Singh, who planned to kill a Sikh religious leader, Baba Pyara Singh Panihari Wala, and some others and to revive militancy in Punjab.
The prosecution cited a telephonic transcript by Trilochan, which read: “I am waiting for you, let’s go see some plot”, and said it was a code for “let’s conduct Paniharewala recce”.
Baljeet asked Trilochan, “How are your fields?” and he replied, “They are really good. I keep watering them.” The prosecution had alleged this was code for “men have been prepared” and the “work will be done”. On Trilochan telling Baljeet, “It is very cold there is a need for clothes”, prosecution said this meant “Baljeet was talking about handing out weapons to Trilochan”. The conversation ends with Baljeet saying, “You wear socks and not pyjamas underneath. Your system is entirely different,” to which Trilochan agrees. The prosecution had alleged that Trilochan was a driver employed with Haryana roadways and usually wore kurta-pyjama or a pant-shirt, and this conversation was to “misguide the intelligence agency”.
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