[Delhi Riots] "If Assalam-o-alaikum illegal, I should stop using it:" Khalid Saifi to Delhi court

The hearing before a Delhi court on Friday in cases connected to the February 2020 Delhi riots, witnessed some interesting exchanges between the Bench and counsel for one of the accused, Khalid Saifi..Saifi while addressing the Court of Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat directly said that "if using Assalam-o-Alaikum is against the law, then he should stop using it". Khalid's statement came after the prosecution's argument in another accused Sharjeel Imam's case. The prosecution had submitted on September 1 that the fact that Imam while protesting against Citizenship Amendment Act, had begun one of his speeches with ‘assalam-o-alaikum’ showed that it was addressed to a particular community and not to the public at large."I read in the papers something on starting a speech with Assalam-o-alaikum, is it a law? I should stop if it is illegal," Saifi said on Friday. The Court, however ,clarified that "it was not the word of the Court, it was a submission made by the prosecution."Saifi also referred to the voluminous chargesheet filed by the Delhi police in the case and said he would move the National Green Tribunal (NGT)."When I come out I will file a case against Delhi Police in NGT. They wasted 2 million papers in filing chargesheet," Saifi said.The Court was hearing an application filed by Saifi pointing out that he had earlier been produced before the wrong court.The Court also heard pleas by other accused including Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita before keeping the matter for hearing on September 30. .The main case relating to riots in FIR 59/2020, attracting provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, was listed today when all the accused persons appeared before the Court.During the hearing Advocate Adit S Pujari appearing for Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal and Advocate Sowjhanya Shankaran for Asif Iqbal Tanha raised arguments for the supply of electronic evidence relied upon by the investigation agency.Both lawyers stated there was delay in filing of reply in the applications filed by them seeking copies of the relied upon electronic evidence. Pujari submitted that he had filed an application under Section 207 CrPC for electronic evidence on April 8. "Five months have gone by and no reply has been filed," he said..Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad pointed out that the digital data being sought was either seized or pertaining to all devices seized from persons during course of investigation. "During the course of investigation, the police called a lot of persons and devices were seized," he said.Prasad added, "Volume of data is huge and data contains personal information of people whose equipment has been seized. If I give, I'll be infringing on their privacy.".Shankaran, in relation to her client Asif Iqbal Tanha, submitted, "It is the bounden duty of prosecution to ensure fair investigation and complete disclosure of what is being relied upon. They have relied on some chats. There should be opportunity for me to contest."