Police framed journalist in Israeli case, claims lawyer

Syed Mohammed Kazmi’s lawyer has pointed out several loopholes in the chargesheet filed by the Special Cell. This was first carried here.

The car carrying Israeli diplomat Tal Yehoshua Koren was attacked on 13 February. PTI he chargesheet against journalist Syed Mohammed Ahmad Kazmi filed by Delhi police special cell is filled with loopholes. Kazmi's lawyer Mehmood Pracha alleges that the discrepancies prove that the Delhi police is trying to frame the journalist in the Israeli embassy car bomb blast case. Kazmi is an accused in the attack on Israeli diplomat Tal Yehoshua Koren on 13 February, which left her seriously injured. The chargesheet names Kazmi as the main accused and lists four Iranians among the suspects. Kazmi was arrested on 6 March. The chargesheet has three different versions on the motorbike that was allegedly used by the person who carried out the attack. According to Koren, the attacker was riding a black bike. However, two independent witnesses, "A" and "B", who were driving behind Koren's car, said that the bike was red, and that there was no bike, respectively. "These two witnesses were at a vantage point to see what was happening. Even they are not sure whether the bike was black, red, or whether there was any bike," Pracha told this newspaper. Pracha says that his client has been "made a scapegoat". "The police had to book someone. As soon as Sanjeev Yadav of the Special Cell (SC) took over the case on 26 February, the investigation went in a wrong direction. It was he who came out with the sticky bomb theory," said Pracha. Similarly, the Special Cell cited a mobile phone number that it alleged was being used by Houshan Afshar Irani (Iranian national accused in the case). Kazmi often called this number from his own mobile phone, the Special Cell claimed. It provided a copy of Irani's passport, which it furnished as proof for obtaining the number. { Kazmi’s lawyer said that his client was being framed because he was in the forefront of the Karbala movement and the restoration of the graveyard located under Rajdhani Nursery in BK Dutt Colony. "It is easy to use someone else's documents to get a SIM card. How can we be sure that someone else did not use Irani's passport to buy the SIM? The copy of the passport can be easily obtained from FCRO (Foreign Credentials Referral Office) .Why wasn't the statement of the shop owner who gave the SIM taken by the Special Cell?" asked Pracha. Surprisingly, the call records of the mobile phone allegedly used by Irani to show that he was present at the attack site have not been attached as evidence. Pracha also questions the recovery of the "bomb making material" from room number 305 of Hotel High 5 in Karol Bagh where the alleged perpetrators of the attack were staying. According to the hotel manager, the room was unoccupied from 13 February to 26 February when the police first went there to seal the room. All the other rooms were occupied during that period. "It is hard to believe that for 13 days no one occupied this room when all the other rooms were booked. Secondly, it's harder to believe that for 13 days the hotel staff did not go inside the room to clean it." Kazmi's lawyer said that his client was being framed because he was in the forefront of the Karbala movement and the restoration of the graveyard located under Rajdhani Nursery in BK Dutt Colony: "He was a leading member of the movement and his writings criticising Israel were not liked by people in the establishment." "He is innocent and soon he will be released. However more than focusing on his release, Kazmi has told me that I should also make sure that the court punishes the police personnel who have wrongly framed him," said Pracha.