‘Has intimate material’: Court declines to share data with Delhi riots accused

The court’s observation comes after the Special Public Prosecutor submitted that the personal data in the mobile phones of the accused persons cannot be supplied to the other accused persons due to “privacy concerns”.

A Delhi court on Thursday said that the mobile data collected from several accused in the Delhi riots conspiracy case, cannot be supplied to the co-accused as it raises the question of their right to privacy and contains their private photos, videos.

The court noted in its order that the public prosecutor presented two sealed envelopes that contained photographs from the mobile phones (Picture for representation only)

“It appears that there is a question of right of privacy of accused and supply of any such data, as asked for, will have an impact on personal lives of the accused persons and thus, supplying any photographs or video as contained in the mobile phone of accused to any other accused persons or even to the counsel of the accused would not be possible,” said additional sessions judge Amitabh Rawat.

Former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader Umar Khalid, varsity students Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita, Jamia Coordination Committee member Safoora Zargar, former Aam Aadmi Party councillor Tahir Hussain and 13 others are the accused in the case. They have been booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

The court noted in its order that the public prosecutor presented two sealed envelopes that contained photographs from the mobile phones, and added that these included intimate pictures and videos by the accused persons.

These were filed in response to the applications by some of the accused seeking additional documents, which the SPP said was “duly supplied”.