Breaking: Delhi Court stays operation of search warrants issued against Mehmood Pracha

A Delhi Court today stayed the operation of search warrants issued against Advocate Mehmood Pracha, whose office was recently raided by the Delhi Police..Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at the Patiala House Court Pankaj Sharma will pronounce orders in Pracha's application on March 12..Today's order was passed in Pracha's application concerning the raids conducted by the Delhi Police at his office on March 9. The raid was in connection with an FIR alleging that Pracha tutored a witness to initiate a false Delhi Riots case..Pracha sought for orders directing the police to retrieve only the relevant information from his hard disk, in the presence of a Magistrate, as opposed to seizing the hard disk. He argued that a soft copy of the materials was as good as a hard copy under the Information Technology Act.Stating that an order to this effect would also protect his privileged conversation with other clients, Pracha remarked,"They want to threaten my clients. That's their purpose. In the main Delhi Riots cases, they say soft copy is equal to hard copy and we would not give hard copy of charge sheet. Here they don't want soft copy.".He added,"Larger issues are involved. Entire judicial system is involved. I'm willing to sacrifice myself to save the Constitution. Please protect my clients, Constitution and Evidence Act.".During the course of arguments, Pracha also argued that it was clear from the video of the riots in question that his complaint was not false. The video was then shown in court.At the end of the hearing, Pracha sought a protective order from the Court till the order is pronounced..Opposing the application, Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad argued that seizing the original hard disk was essential as it ought to be sent to a forensic science laboratory for examination. A mirror hard disk can be put back into his computer, Prasad said..In his application before the Court, Pracha has asserted that purpose of obtaining a search warrant was to yet again threaten, intimidate and frighten him..Pracha has assured that under directions of the court, he shall supply the specific documents i.e e-mail, complaint etc., which are allegedly drafted by him, to the authorities..The lawyer, who has been representing accused persons in Delhi riots cases, was raided by the Delhi Police on December 24, 2020. The Police claimed that it was searching for "incriminating documents" and meta data of the outbox of the official email id of Pracha's firm..He had later moved the Patiala House Court in Delhi seeking preservation of copies of the video footage of the raids conducted by Delhi Police at his office on December 24..A Magisterial Court had then directed the preservation of the entire video footage of the police raid at Pracha's premises.

Breaking: Delhi Court stays operation of search warrants issued against Mehmood Pracha

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