On December 15, a single-judge Delhi High Court bench led by Justice Jasmeet Singh suspended the enforcement of a search warrant granted by a magistrate and other decisions made by the trial court regarding searches by the Delhi Police at the office of Advocate Mehmood Pracha. The bench believed that Delhi Police had searched Pracha's office on December 24, 2020, and that no notice had been served in accordance with section 91 of the Cr.P.C.

"For the reasons recorded hereinabove, the order dated 02.03.2021, 04.03.2021, 25.03.2021 passed by learned CMM in FIR No. 212/2020 and order dated 05.11.2022 passed by ASJ-07, New Delhi District in Criminal Revision No. 159/2021 and the search warrant dated 04.03.2021 shall remain stayed till the next date of hearing," the court said while listing the matter for hearing next on January 13.

Pracha has been accused of using "forged" documents in a case connected to Northeast Delhi riots, by police. After an FIR was registered against the lawyer in August 2020, the Delhi Police obtained a search warrant from a local court to search "incriminating documents" and "metadata of outbox" of the official email address of Pracha's office.

Pracha claims in his appeal that the Delhi Police is looking for specific documents on his computer and that they have already confiscated those documents while carrying out a previous search order. The plea claims that the police acting in an "underhanded manner" and obtaining a new search warrant while the entire matter was pending adjudication before the CMM is "totally arbitrary and against the core principle of rule of law."

"It is clear that there was absolutely no urgency to seek a second warrant as the first warrant itself was obtained four months after the FIR was registered, and the second warrant was sought after more than three months after the first warrant was executed, and the allegation of the petitioner possibly tampering with any evidence does not inspire any confidence," the plea adds.

Case Title: Mehmood Pracha v. State
Citation: CRL.M.A. 26416/2022 & CRL.M.A. 26417/2022
Link: 

http://164.100.60.183/writereaddata/OrderSAN_PDF/jsm/2022/1671807455833_58132_2022.pdf