A special cell of Delhi Police today conducted searches at the office of Supreme Court Advocate Mehmood Pracha in relation to the Delhi riots case. The search was done after obtaining a court warrant.
Delhi: Police raids at lawyer Mehmood Pracha’s office in the city. Police say, “A search warrant issued by the court is being executed”. Raids are being conducted in connection with the Delhi riots case.
— ANI (@ANI) December 24, 2020
Journalist Raj Shekhar tweeted today that the court had earlier ordered an FIR to be filed against Pracha who is accused of forging an affidavit and tutoring the Delhi riot victims to give false statements.
Delhi Police special cell carried out searches on court warrant at Advocate Mehmood Pracha’s office. The court had earlier ordered an FIR. Pracha is accused of allegedly forging an affidavit and tutoring riot victims to give false statements.
— Raj Shekhar Jha (@rajshekharTOI) December 24, 2020
According to journalist Aditya Menon, the police is looking for incriminating documents and metadata of the outbox of the official email id of Pracha’s law firm. Pracha is handling a number of cases relating to the anti-Hindu Delhi riots.
Raids at Advocate @MehmoodPracha‘s office being carried out by Delhi Police Special Cell. In its warrant, Police has claimed it is searching for “incriminating documents” and “meta data of outbox” of the official email id of Pracha’s firm https://t.co/Rs1pAI81Os
— Aditya Menon (@AdityaMenon22) December 24, 2020
According to the search warrant, the lawyer has been booked under section 182, 193, 420, 468, 471, 472, 473, 120B of the IPC. It notes that incriminating data comprising false complaint and metadata of outbox of email account which was used to send incriminating documents are essential to the investigation being conducted by the Special Cell of Delhi police. The court authorised the police to conduct the search during the day to find such evidence, and ordered it to be video recorded.
An FIR was filed against him for inciting communal hatred
In July this year, an FIR was filed against Pracha along with Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad after the two announced in a press conference that they would be setting up a camp in Lucknow to teach Muslims and Dalits about the ‘right to self-defence’ and how to apply for a firearm licence. However, despite the FIR, Pracha was seen holding a camp inside a Lucknow Mosque where he was training Muslims about how to fill our licences and acquire firearms. He had also talked about resuming the anti-CAA protests in the month of August this year.
