The Evening Wrap: SC wants U.P. to dispel impression of ‘dragging its feet’ in Lakhimpur Kheri case

The Supreme Court on Wednesday found it hard to dispel the impression that the Uttar Pradesh Government is “dragging its feet” in the Lakhimpur Kheri case in which a Union Minister’s son is accused of mowing down protesting farmers. A three-judge Bench, led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana, discovered from a status report filed by the Government just minutes before the hearing that only four of 44 witnesses to the brutal incident have given their statements to the judicial magistrate so far. The incident, which allegedly involves the convoy of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni, occurred on October 3. A statement recorded by a magistrate under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) is valuable later during trial as corroborative evidence. It can be used to bolster the prosecution case against the accused. Any delay in recording statements under Section 164 CrPC creates room for influencing the witnesses. Senior advocate Harish Salve, for U.P., said he was instructed that the delay occurred due to the Dussehra holidays. The courts had been closed for the festival. “What is the connection between Dussehra vacation and criminal courts?” Chief Justice Ramana shot back. Justice Surya Kant stated, “Why have the statements of only four witnesses been recorded out of 44? Your Special Investigation Team is the best person to know who can be browbeaten?” The State’s Additional Advocate General, Garima Parshad, said the police had not wasted time and, in the meanwhile, “reconstructed the crime scene”. Chief Justice Ramana addressed Parshad, “The reconstruction of the crime is different from recording the Section 164 CrPC statements of witnesses. Our question is why were they not taken all this while?” Justice Hima Kohli, on the Bench, told the State “we think you are dragging your feet... Please dispel the impression”. Chief Justice Ramana told Salve, “Please tell them to start on the Section 164 statements...” The senior lawyer urged the court to adjourn the case to next week. He promised that things would be cleared up by then. He said that in the last hearing on October 8, the court voiced doubts whether the State was “going soft” on the accused. “How many of the accused have been arrested?” the CJI asked. Salve said ten have been arrested in the case of the farmers’ deaths. He highlighted that there were two crimes involved. One was regarding the running over of farmers and the other concerning the lynching of three people in the ensuing violence. He submitted that the second incident was “more difficult to investigate” as it was a mob that was involved. The court observed that the case needed to be bifurcated. The Bench, which had taken suo motu cognisance of the Lakhimpur Kheri events, said it would first focus on the farmers deaths. “How many of the 10 accused persons in this case are in judicial custody and police custody?” the CJI asked. When Salve said four were in police custody, the court asked about the remaining six accused. Parshad informed that they were “earlier in police custody” and then sent in judicial custody. At this point, Justice Kant asked whether the police had even made a case for extension of their custody of the six before the magistrate. He said, “There are two ways. One, the police insists on extension of their custody but the court refuses and sends them to judicial custody. Two, the police does not insist and the court has no alternative but send them in judicial custody... Which one happened here?” he asked Salve and Parshad. Parshad noted that the State had asked and got three days of police custody of the accused. Their statements had been recorded. Further, there were “more than 70 videos” of the incident in question. Hence, there was no need for further police custody and interrogation of the accused. “They [accused] should not amend their story later,” the CJI voiced the Bench’s skepticism of the State’s confidence. The court finally adjourned the hearing to October 26, giving time for U.P. to provide more information about their investigation. Priyanka Gandhi stopped from proceeding towards Agra: Lucknow Police Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was on Wednesday stopped by Uttar Pradesh Police from going to Agra to meet the family members of a man who died in police custody and was later taken to the police lines. The police said the Congress general secretary was stopped at the Lucknow-Agra expressway as the Agra district magistrate had requested not to allow any political personality to go there following the man’s death. “She has neither been taken into custody nor arrested. Because of the massive crowds, the movement of traffic was being hampered and she was first asked to either go to the party office or her residence but when she did not agree, she was sent to the police lines,” Lucknow police commissioner D.K. Thakur said. A Congress spokesman had claimed that Priyanka Gandhi has been taken into custody while she was going to Agra to meet the family members of the sanitation worker who had died in police custody. To a query from newspersons in Kushinagar on Priyanka Gandhi being stopped from going to Agra, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had earlier in the day said, “Law and order is supreme and no one will be allowed to play with it.” While being taken to the police lines, Priyanka Gandhi told newspersons that she will definitely go to Agra. The Congress spokesman had alleged that Priyanka Gandhi was made to stop at the expressway for about two hours and later taken into custody, A similar confrontation had occurred early this month when the Uttar Pradesh Police had prevented the Congress leader from visiting the families of farmers killed in Lakhimpur Kheri. She was taken into preventive custody for over 48 hours before being allowed to visit the families along with Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders. Aryan Khan moves Bombay High Court after special court rejects bail Actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan on Wednesday moved the Bombay High Court after a special court under the Narcotics Drugs Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act rejected his bail in the case of the busting of a drug racket on a cruise on October 2. The appeal of Aryan Khan (23) in the High Court is expected to be heard on Thursday. Khan, who is lodged at the Arthur Road Jail, was arrested on October 3 by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) after the cruise raid. Special Judge V.V. Patil also rejected the bail pleas of Arbaaz Merchant, 26, and Munmun Dhamecha, 39 arrested with him. Khan had sought bail through senior advocate Amit Desai on the grounds that there has been no recovery of possession of contraband found from him. Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, for the NCB, has opposed Khan’s bail, saying, “Mr. Khan has a role in illicit procurement and consumption of contraband. It is prima facie revealed that he used to procure contraband from Merchant and the sources connected to him from whose conscious possession six grams of charas was recovered.” On October 2, the agency seized 13 grams of cocaine, five grams of MD (mephedrone), 21 grams of charas, 22 pills of MDMA (ecstasy) and ₹1,33,000 in cash at the International Cruise Terminal, Mumbai. BJP open to tie-up with Amarinder Singh, says party leader The BJP on Wednesday appeared open to an alliance with the yet to be formed political party of former Punjab Chief Minister Captain (retd.) Amarinder Singh, a day after the latter made an overture. BJP general secretary and party’s Punjab in-charge Dushyant Gautam said Capt. Singh was a “patriot” and the BJP was open to tie-ups with “nationalist forces.” On Tuesday, Capt. Singh stated that he would soon announce his own political party and was hopeful of a seat arrangement with the BJP if the farmers’ issue was resolved in their interest. On his condition of resolving farmers’ issues, Gautam noted that Capt. Singh had not spoken about ending the farmers’ agitation. “He talked about farmers’ issues. We are committed to it and are working for the welfare of farmers. If the time comes, both will sit together and discuss farmers’ issues,” he observed. “Our main agenda is nationalism and keeping the nation first. All those parties who want to form alliances with us on this agenda are welcome.” Capt. Singh was once a soldier and his stand on the issues of national security should be praised. “He was a soldier. He knows about the threats to the country and how to secure it. He is patriotic. And whenever it is a matter of national security and security at the borders, we have appreciated his stand,” Gautam remarked, adding that nationalists were not “untouchables” to the BJP. Senior sources in the party disclosed that one could anticipate a move towards resolving the long-running agitation of farmers against the three controversial farm laws. “Several options are being mulled in terms of a way out, including a new expanded committee of stakeholders to hold talks with farmers go into the nitty gritties of the demands by farmers,” a source explained. Interestingly, Capt. Singh had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval after he quit as Chief Minister. At that time, it was said he had spoken of the security challenges in the border State post the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Supreme Court debates shifting from virtual to physical hearings twice a week The Supreme Court’s decision to shift gears from virtual to physical hearings twice a week became a hot point of debate on the very first day of the court’s re-opening after Dasara holidays on October 20, 2021. Several senior lawyers across the spectrum, including senior advocate Kapil Sibal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, urged Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana to not make physical hearings mandatory. Sibal said physical hearings should not be made a “hard-and-fast rule”. The senior lawyer said some cases had records which ran into 50 to 60 volumes, and allowing just one briefing lawyer inside the courtroom would affect proper legal representation of the matter. The CJI said the court was forced to modify its standard operating procedure (SOP) to make physical court mandatory on Wednesdays and Thursdays. The first full physical hearing in the Supreme Court would start from October 21, a Thursday. The CJI said certain sections had been clamouring that the court was “shirking” from physical hearings. According to the modified SOP, lawyers have an option to opt either physical or virtual mode on Tuesdays. The Chief Justice said some of his colleagues still had reservations about physical hearings. Sibal said several High Courts continued to hold hybrid hearings. He said physical hearings should be given further thought and any positive action on it should be deferred to after Deepavali. The Chief Justice explained that a committee of Supreme Court judges set up by former Chief Justice S.A. Bobde decided the issue of physical hearings. Sibal’s request had to be put before this committee. Sibal said he and other lawyers could meet the committee this week. The CJI agreed to place the issue before other judges later in the day. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 3,41,08,367 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 4,52,684. Fully vaccinated travellers, coming from a country with which India has reciprocal arrangements for mutual acceptance of WHO approved COVID-19 vaccines shall be allowed to leave the airport and need not undergo home quarantine and testing from October 25, according to the revised guidelines for international arrivals released on Wednesday. They will, however, have to produce a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR report. If partially or not vaccinated, the travellers need to undertake measures which include submission of sample for post-arrival COVID-19 test at the point of arrival after which they will be allowed to leave the airport, home quarantine for seven days, re-test on the eighth day of arrival in India and if negative, further self monitor their health for next seven days. These guidelines for international arrivals supersede of all guidelines issued on the subject on and after February 17, 2021, the Union Health Ministry said. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 20 OCTOBER 2021 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Lakhimpur Kheri | Supreme Court wants U.P. to dispel impression of ‘dragging its feet’ The Supreme Court on Wednesday [found it hard to dispel the impression that the Uttar Pradesh Government is “dragging its feet” in the Lakhimpur Kheri case]( in which a Union Minister’s son is accused of mowing down protesting farmers. A three-judge Bench, led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana, discovered from a status report filed by the Government just minutes before the hearing that only four of 44 witnesses to the brutal incident have given their statements to the judicial magistrate so far. The incident, which allegedly involves the convoy of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni, occurred on October 3. A statement recorded by a magistrate under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) is valuable later during trial as corroborative evidence. It can be used to bolster the prosecution case against the accused. Any delay in recording statements under Section 164 CrPC creates room for influencing the witnesses. Senior advocate Harish Salve, for U.P., said he was instructed that the delay occurred due to the Dussehra holidays. The courts had been closed for the festival. “What is the connection between Dussehra vacation and criminal courts?” Chief Justice Ramana shot back. Justice Surya Kant stated, “Why have the statements of only four witnesses been recorded out of 44? Your Special Investigation Team is the best person to know who can be browbeaten?” The State’s Additional Advocate General, Garima Parshad, said the police had not wasted time and, in the meanwhile, “reconstructed the crime scene”. Chief Justice Ramana addressed Parshad, “The reconstruction of the crime is different from recording the Section 164 CrPC statements of witnesses. Our question is why were they not taken all this while?” Justice Hima Kohli, on the Bench, told the State “we think you are dragging your feet... Please dispel the impression”. Chief Justice Ramana told Salve, “Please tell them to start on the Section 164 statements...” The senior lawyer urged the court to adjourn the case to next week. He promised that things would be cleared up by then. He said that in the last hearing on October 8, the court voiced doubts whether the State was “going soft” on the accused. “How many of the accused have been arrested?” the CJI asked. Salve said ten have been arrested in the case of the farmers’ deaths. He highlighted that there were two crimes involved. One was regarding the running over of farmers and the other concerning the lynching of three people in the ensuing violence. He submitted that the second incident was “more difficult to investigate” as it was a mob that was involved. The court observed that the case needed to be bifurcated. The Bench, which had taken suo motu cognisance of the Lakhimpur Kheri events, said it would first focus on the farmers deaths. “How many of the 10 accused persons in this case are in judicial custody and police custody?” the CJI asked. When Salve said four were in police custody, the court asked about the remaining six accused. Parshad informed that they were “earlier in police custody” and then sent in judicial custody. At this point, Justice Kant asked whether the police had even made a case for extension of their custody of the six before the magistrate. He said, “There are two ways. One, the police insists on extension of their custody but the court refuses and sends them to judicial custody. Two, the police does not insist and the court has no alternative but send them in judicial custody... Which one happened here?” he asked Salve and Parshad. Parshad noted that the State had asked and got three days of police custody of the accused. Their statements had been recorded. Further, there were “more than 70 videos” of the incident in question. Hence, there was no need for further police custody and interrogation of the accused. “They [accused] should not amend their story later,” the CJI voiced the Bench’s skepticism of the State’s confidence. The court finally adjourned the hearing to October 26, giving time for U.P. to provide more information about their investigation. [underlineimg] Priyanka Gandhi stopped from proceeding towards Agra: Lucknow Police Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was on Wednesday [stopped by Uttar Pradesh Police from going to Agra]( to meet the family members of a man who died in police custody and was later taken to the police lines. The police said the Congress general secretary was stopped at the Lucknow-Agra expressway as the Agra district magistrate had requested not to allow any political personality to go there following the man’s death. “She has neither been taken into custody nor arrested. Because of the massive crowds, the movement of traffic was being hampered and she was first asked to either go to the party office or her residence but when she did not agree, she was sent to the police lines,” Lucknow police commissioner D.K. Thakur said. [Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on her way to meet the family of Arun Valmiki, who allegedly died in police custody, in Agra, Wednesday, Oct 20, 2021. ]  A Congress spokesman had claimed that Priyanka Gandhi has been taken into custody while she was going to Agra to meet the family members of the sanitation worker who had died in police custody. To a query from newspersons in Kushinagar on Priyanka Gandhi being stopped from going to Agra, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had earlier in the day said, “Law and order is supreme and no one will be allowed to play with it.” While being taken to the police lines, Priyanka Gandhi told newspersons that she will definitely go to Agra. The Congress spokesman had alleged that Priyanka Gandhi was made to stop at the expressway for about two hours and later taken into custody, A similar confrontation had occurred early this month when the Uttar Pradesh Police had prevented the Congress leader from visiting the families of farmers killed in Lakhimpur Kheri. She was taken into preventive custody for over 48 hours before being allowed to visit the families along with Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders. [underlineimg] Aryan Khan moves Bombay High Court after special court rejects bail Actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan on Wednesday [moved the Bombay High Court]( after a special court under the Narcotics Drugs Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act rejected his bail in the case of the busting of a drug racket on a cruise on October 2. The appeal of Aryan Khan (23) in the High Court is expected to be heard on Thursday. Khan, who is lodged at the Arthur Road Jail, was arrested on October 3 by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) after the cruise raid. Special Judge V.V. Patil also rejected the bail pleas of Arbaaz Merchant, 26, and Munmun Dhamecha, 39 arrested with him. Khan had sought bail through senior advocate Amit Desai on the grounds that there has been no recovery of possession of contraband found from him. Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, for the NCB, has opposed Khan’s bail, saying, “Mr. Khan has a role in illicit procurement and consumption of contraband. It is prima facie revealed that he used to procure contraband from Merchant and the sources connected to him from whose conscious possession six grams of charas was recovered.” On October 2, the agency seized 13 grams of cocaine, five grams of MD (mephedrone), 21 grams of charas, 22 pills of MDMA (ecstasy) and ₹1,33,000 in cash at the International Cruise Terminal, Mumbai. [underlineimg] BJP open to tie-up with Amarinder Singh, says party leader The BJP on Wednesday [appeared open to an alliance with the yet to be formed political party of former Punjab Chief Minister Captain (retd.) Amarinder Singh]( a day after the latter made an overture. BJP general secretary and party’s Punjab in-charge Dushyant Gautam said Capt. Singh was a “patriot” and the BJP was open to tie-ups with “nationalist forces.” On Tuesday, Capt. Singh stated that he would soon announce his own political party and was hopeful of a seat arrangement with the BJP if the farmers’ issue was resolved in their interest. On his condition of resolving farmers’ issues, Gautam noted that Capt. Singh had not spoken about ending the farmers’ agitation. “He talked about farmers’ issues. We are committed to it and are working for the welfare of farmers. If the time comes, both will sit together and discuss farmers’ issues,” he observed. “Our main agenda is nationalism and keeping the nation first. All those parties who want to form alliances with us on this agenda are welcome.” Capt. Singh was once a soldier and his stand on the issues of national security should be praised. “He was a soldier. He knows about the threats to the country and how to secure it. He is patriotic. And whenever it is a matter of national security and security at the borders, we have appreciated his stand,” Gautam remarked, adding that nationalists were not “untouchables” to the BJP. Senior sources in the party disclosed that one could anticipate a move towards resolving the long-running agitation of farmers against the three controversial farm laws. “Several options are being mulled in terms of a way out, including a new expanded committee of stakeholders to hold talks with farmers go into the nitty gritties of the demands by farmers,” a source explained. Interestingly, Capt. Singh had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval after he quit as Chief Minister. At that time, it was said he had spoken of the security challenges in the border State post the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. [underlineimg] Supreme Court debates shifting from virtual to physical hearings twice a week The Supreme Court’s decision to shift gears from virtual to physical hearings twice a week became a hot point of [debate on the very first day of the court’s re-opening]( after Dasara holidays on October 20, 2021. Several senior lawyers across the spectrum, including senior advocate Kapil Sibal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, urged Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana to not make physical hearings mandatory. Sibal said physical hearings should not be made a “hard-and-fast rule”. The senior lawyer said some cases had records which ran into 50 to 60 volumes, and allowing just one briefing lawyer inside the courtroom would affect proper legal representation of the matter. The CJI said the court was forced to modify its standard operating procedure (SOP) to make physical court mandatory on Wednesdays and Thursdays. The first full physical hearing in the Supreme Court would start from October 21, a Thursday. The CJI said certain sections had been clamouring that the court was “shirking” from physical hearings. According to the modified SOP, lawyers have an option to opt either physical or virtual mode on Tuesdays. The Chief Justice said some of his colleagues still had reservations about physical hearings. Sibal said several High Courts continued to hold hybrid hearings. He said physical hearings should be given further thought and any positive action on it should be deferred to after Deepavali. The Chief Justice explained that a committee of Supreme Court judges set up by former Chief Justice S.A. Bobde decided the issue of physical hearings. Sibal’s request had to be put before this committee. Sibal said he and other lawyers could meet the committee this week. The CJI agreed to place the issue before other judges later in the day. [underlineimg] Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The [number of reported coronavirus cases from India]( stood at 3,41,08,367 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 4,52,684.  Fully vaccinated travellers, coming from a country with which India has reciprocal arrangements for mutual acceptance of WHO approved COVID-19 vaccines shall be allowed to leave the airport and need not undergo home quarantine and testing from October 25, [according to the revised guidelines for international arrivals]( released on Wednesday. They will, however, have to produce a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR report. [Photo used for representational purpose only. File]  If partially or not vaccinated, the travellers need to undertake measures which include submission of sample for post-arrival COVID-19 test at the point of arrival after which they will be allowed to leave the airport, home quarantine for seven days, re-test on the eighth day of arrival in India and if negative, further self monitor their health for next seven days. These guidelines for international arrivals supersede of all guidelines issued on the subject on and after February 17, 2021, the Union Health Ministry said. 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