logo
Court grants Tihar authorities time to reply on Tahawwur Rana's plea

Court grants Tihar authorities time to reply on Tahawwur Rana's plea

Time of India16-07-2025
File photo: Tahawwur Rana (ANI)
NEW DELHI: Hearing a plea by key 26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana seeking phone conversations with his family, a Delhi court on Tuesday granted the the Tihar Jail authorities time to file a reply.
Special
NIA
Judge Chander Jit Singh scheduled the next hearing for July 25. Earlier, court had allowed Rana to talk to his family. The hearing took place in-camera where Legal Aid Counsel's advocate Piyush Sachdev appeared for Rana.
Meanwhile, the court allowed a plea by Rana seeking a bed and a mattress in prison. The jail authorities had opposed the plea submitting that, as per jail rules, inmates aged 65 or older can get bed. But Rana submitted he was 64 years and six months old and had medical issues. NIA informed court that it provided Rana's complete medical history to jail authorities. On July 9, after NIA filed a supplementary chargesheet, court extended his judicial custody till August 13.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

‘Chinar Corps will invariably send terrorists to meet their maker': Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai
‘Chinar Corps will invariably send terrorists to meet their maker': Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai

Hindustan Times

time41 minutes ago

  • Hindustan Times

‘Chinar Corps will invariably send terrorists to meet their maker': Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai

Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai, the face of the Indian Army during Operation Sindoor and deputy chief of army staff (Strategy), praised the Chinar Corps for its role in Monday's encounter near Srinagar in which three terrorists, including Pahalgam attack mastermind Suleiman Shah, were neutralised. Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai hailed Chinar Corps for its role in Monday's encounter near Srinagar, calling them valiant warriors of the Indian Army. (ANI File) In a post on X, Lt Gen Ghai highlighted the harsh terrain and operational challenges security forces face during anti-terror operations in Jammu and Kashmir. 'Sometimes, when you despair that results are not forthcoming, you only need to spare a thought for the tough terrain and conditions that affect such operations,' he wrote. He went on to commend the Chinar Corps' commitment to national security, saying, 'Never forget that the Chinar Corps will invariably send terrorists to meet their maker. Salute to the valiant warriors of this exalted outfit of the Indian Army.' The remarks came soon after the confirmation that three terrorists were killed in a joint operation, codenamed Operation Mahadev, launched by the Indian Army and Jammu and Kashmir Police in the Lidwas region near Dara, close to Dachigam National Park. Suleiman Shah, also known as Hashim Moosa, was the mastermind behind the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam that claimed 26 lives, mostly tourists. Suleiman Shah had previously served in the Pakistan Army, reported NDTV. He was affiliated with the Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). 'It is a prolonged operation and is still continuing in which J&K police, paramilitary and army have an exchange of fire (with terrorists) in higher reaches. As per the interior reports, three bodies are being observed and seems to be neutralised. It is an ongoing operation and I would not like to divulge much at this moment. We will share details with you at an opportune time. It will take us some time for identification and all that. The (security) parties are still inside,' IGP Kashmir Vidhi Kumar Birdi told the media.

TIP-ping Point: 7/11 Blasts And Judicial Lottery
TIP-ping Point: 7/11 Blasts And Judicial Lottery

News18

time4 hours ago

  • News18

TIP-ping Point: 7/11 Blasts And Judicial Lottery

The 7/11 case has yet again raised disturbing questions about the moral compass of Indian criminal jurisprudence. The conscience of the nation stands enraged. Both possibilities speak volumes of systemic failure. Either the then coalition Government in Maharashtra in 2006 oversaw a catastrophic collapse in investigation and prosecution, letting terrorists walk free. Or we incarcerated innocent men for the last 19 years. Both scenarios paint a profoundly disturbing picture of our justice system. The 11 dark minutes of July 11, 2006, when seven coordinated bomb blasts ripped through Mumbai's suburban railway network, scarred the city forever. The carnage claimed 209 lives and injured over 700. Swift arrests followed; 13 men were accused, 12 were convicted – five sentenced to death, the rest to life imprisonment. But on July 21, 2025, the Bombay High Court acquitted all 12 convicted men. The Court found the prosecution to have faltered at the most fundamental level. The judgment exposes a central tension: a conflict between state capacity and judicial threshold. Crimes of this nature are intrinsically difficult to investigate and prosecute. Probes must navigate intricate webs of terror planning and execution, all while racing against time. Every passing moment results in evidentiary decay. Yet, when this challenge of capacity meets the rigorous standards of 'innocent until proven guilty', verdicts like the one in this case become inevitable. This case has yet again raised disturbing questions about the moral compass of Indian criminal jurisprudence. A recurring affliction in our criminal system is the doctrine of 'uncertain-fatality', an interpretive fragility that leaves outcomes to the temperaments of individual judges. The United States follows a clear standard- the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine, where any illegally procured evidence is automatically inadmissible. India has adopted a different course. Indian courts are notably more liberal in admitting evidence, even if tainted by illegality, choosing instead to assign it probative value after scrutiny. Our courts separate the wheat from the chaff, i.e., they painstakingly distinguish believable evidence from the rest. Yet this process of legal surgery varies by the skill and subjectivity of the surgeon. Similar cases with similar flaws have passed the muster before other courts. But the Bombay High Court, in this case, deemed the lapses to be fatal. The real fatality, it seems, is even-handed justice. Your ability to secure relief as a kin of the deceased now hinges disproportionately on the courtroom lottery. In this case, the Bombay High Court took a sword to the scalpel, with one blow, it declared the prosecution's case to have 'utterly failed.' The concern lies not in the judges having taken a particular view, but in the inconsistency and subjectivity with which criminal justice is dispensed. The Bombay High Court, while acquitting all convicts, based its reasoning primarily on the flawed Test Identification Parade (TIP). Put simply, in a TIP, the accused is made to stand in a lineup with others of similar physique and features, and the eyewitness is invited to pick out the suspect. The very act of correctly identifying the accused lends strength and credibility to the witness's courtroom testimony. Under Section 7 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, TIP serves a dual purpose: first, it helps the investigating agency confirm if they are on the right track; second, it offers corroboration for in-court identification. It becomes a critical evidentiary tool, helping place the accused at the relevant location and time. The procedure, however, is stringent. TIPs must be conducted by a Magistrate, not the police, and preferably within jail premises to minimise external influence. Witnesses must be called individually, barred from communication with each other, and asked to describe what they saw. Every reaction must be recorded in detail. In this case, the Bombay High Court excluded the identification evidence entirely. It held that TIPs were conducted by Shri Barve, a Special Executive Officer, who had no legal authority to carry them out. This procedural violation- TIPs must be supervised by a Magistrate, was not a mere technical lapse. According to the Court, it rendered the identification process void and left it open to manipulation. Consequently, the identifications made by witnesses were deemed inadmissible. The prosecution, which had heavily relied on these TIPs, now found itself without the very foundation of its case. What remained was dock identification, witnesses identifying the accused in court nearly four years later. But that raised a pivotal legal question: can someone credibly identify an individual they only saw momentarily, years ago, without memory aids or prior interaction? The High Court concluded they could not. No distinguishing features. No extended observation. No credibility. Thus, even the courtroom identifications were stripped of their evidentiary weight. The very eyewitness testimony on which the prosecution had built its case crumbled, ironically, not due to falsehood, but due to the prosecution's own procedural lapses. This would be an acceptable outcome, had other courts taken such a strict approach. But that is not the case. Courts across India continue to admit TIP evidence despite glaring procedural irregularities. That inconsistency needs urgent review by the Supreme Court of India. Another major blow to the prosecution was its reliance on stock witnesses- individuals who appear as panch or eyewitnesses in multiple unrelated cases. For instance, Vishal Parmar claimed to have seen Accused No. 4 board the train with a black rexine bag and disembark without it. The Court flagged him as unreliable, as he had served as a panch witness in multiple prior cases, including those involving officers from this very trial. His employer, Mukesh Rabadiya, was similarly discredited as a stock witness. Yet in Nana Keshav Lagad v. State of Maharashtra (2013), the Supreme Court clarified that merely appearing as a witness in multiple cases does not invalidate testimony by itself. This raises legitimate questions about the Bombay High Court's choice to outright dismiss such testimony here. The trouble is, this was bound to happen. When judicial discretion is left unbounded by consistent thresholds, some courts interpret lapses as fatal, others see them as fixable. This divergence undermines the rule of law. And the stakes are extraordinarily high in cases involving such enormous human tragedy. Just as troubling is the message this sends to the investigative machinery: that mistakes may or may not matter, depending on the bench. Impunity thrives in uncertainty. We urgently need clear, consistent, and constitutionally sound standards, replacing what has become a wild west of discretion in criminal procedure. Criminal justice must be precise. We must know what is acceptable and what is not. top videos View all The Supreme Court has issued notice in the criminal appeal. The legal questions answered by the Bombay High Court now await constitutional scrutiny. The author is a Senior Supreme Court Advocate and former Additional Solicitor General of India. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views. tags : 2006 Mumbai Train Blasts Mumbai train blasts view comments Location : New Delhi, India, India First Published: July 28, 2025, 15:57 IST News opinion Opinion | TIP-ping Point: 7/11 Blasts And Judicial Lottery Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

NIA denies phone call facilities to Tahawwur Rana
NIA denies phone call facilities to Tahawwur Rana

Hindustan Times

time4 hours ago

  • Hindustan Times

NIA denies phone call facilities to Tahawwur Rana

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has declined permission to the Tihar jail authorities to let 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks accused Tahawwur Hussain Rana avail regular phone call facilities to speak to his family, people familiar with the matter said. Tahawwur Rana, through his legal aid counsel, Piyush Sachdeva, made an application seeking a regular phone call facility from jail.(HT Photo) The development came after the deputy inspector general (DIG) of Delhi Prisons, in a status report filed before special judge (NIA) Chanderjit Singh on Saturday, submitted that the federal agency refused a no-objection certificate (NOC) on Rana being allowed to speak to his family once every month on a regular basis, citing a security threat. HT has seen a copy of the report. The court listed the matter for hearing on August 1, when it is likely to take a call on whether to accept NIA's contentions against the phone calls or not. Earlier this month, Rana, the 64-year-old Pakistani-origin Canadian businessman, through his legal-aid counsel Piyush Sachdeva, moved an application, seeking a regular phone call facility from jail. The plea said Rana wanted to speak to his family in Canada as part of his fundamental right as an undertrial. It also argued that the phone call facility would allow Rana to consult his family on the further legal course in the case. On June 9, special judge Singh of the Patiala House court permitted Rana to make a one-time phone call from Tihar jail to speak to his family, under the condition that it be conducted strictly in accordance with Tihar's jail manual and rules. Notably, the court also sought Tihar jail's stand on granting Rana monthly phone call access and directed the jail administration to submit a detailed report on the feasibility and conditions of such access within 10 days.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store