Day after raid, Delhi Police book Mehmood Pracha for obstruction

A day after Delhi Police raided the office of senior advocate Mehmood Pracha in connection with a forgery complaint, a first information report (FIR) was registered against him at Hazrat Nizamuddin police station on Friday under sections 353 and 186 (obstructing public servant from doing his duty) and 34 (common intention) of IPC, said deputy commissioner of police (southeast) RP Meena.

Two police officials privy to the development also said that the police would also send a detailed report about the incident along with video evidence to the court. Both Pracha and the police had recorded video of the raid.

According to his office, Pracha is representing, pro bono, at least 100 persons arrested in the 2020 Delhi riots case, including Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad and Gulfisha Fatima.

Pracha said the raid that began at noon on Thursday, ended at 2.30am on Friday. He alleged that the police assaulted and intimidated him. While the police said they had obtained a warrant to searched Pracha’s office, many political leaders and lawyers criticised police for the alleged high-handedness.

On Thursday, Pracha had also filed a complaint at Hazrat Nizamuddin police station, alleging that some imposters posing as police personnel had visited his office and stolen data from his computers. Police did not comment on Pracha’s complaint.

On Friday, as controversy surrounded the police raid, the Delhi Police released a statement on Thursday’s events. Police said that searches were carried between Thursday and Friday at Pracha’s office and the office of another lawyer, Javed Ali, in Yamuna Vihar after receiving warrants under issued under Section 93 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). Police claimed the search teams were accompanied by independent public witnesses, staff in uniform, women police officers and videographers.

DCP (special cell) Manishi Chandra, whose team had conducted the raids, said Javed Ali “extended cooperation” after seeing the warrant. “Being sensitive to the needs of a practising advocate, a facility was extended to him (Ali) to obtain a mirror image of the seized hard disk so that his normal professional activities do not get hampered. The whole operation that started at Ali’s Yamuna Vihar office around 5 pm Thursday ended at about 10 am on Friday,” he said in the statement.

Chandra said the team that searched Pracha’s office was “met with stiff resistance”. “Pracha was served a written request to cooperate in locating the computer wherein the incriminating documents may be present so as to avoid a general search of all the computer systems which were found in his office,” said the DCP, adding that Pracha and his associates got “aggressive and abusive”.

DCP Chandra claimed that when the police team tried searching for files with a particular keyword on a computer and informed him that a particular computer had to be seized, he got “verbally aggressive and created a ruckus”.

Police had on Thursday said that they conducted searches at Pracha’s office in a case where two lawyers, including Pracha are accused of fabricating evidence and using forged notary stamp. On August 22, police had registered an FIR against Pracha after one of the riot victims told a court that the lawyer has asked him to fake a deposition and frame three people in riot cases. Pracha had then denied the allegations and said that he was being framed by police as he was representing many persons arrested in riots cases.