ED lawyer snubbed after he asked Shabir Shah to chant 'Bharat Mata ki jai'
August 03, 2017 21:38
A Delhi court snubbed today an overenthusiastic prosecutor for the Enforcement Directorate for asking Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah to chant 'Bharat Mata ki jai' to prove his patriotism, saying it was not a television studio.
Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma chided the lawyer for his remark and later allowed the ED's plea for extention of sixty-four-year-old Shah's custodial interrogation in a decade-old money laundering case.
The ED's counsel Rajeev Awasthi alleged that Shah was ruining the country by using money to fund terror and breached the line by daring the separatist leader to chant 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' to prove his patriotism.
However, an anguished judge stopped him, warning that the courtroom was not a "television studio."
"Argue on the merits of the case," said the judge.
During the proceedings, the ED submitted that foreign funds were used for terror activities including stone pelting on the security agencies in the Valley.
The agency told the court that the source of funding of properties of Shah, worth hundreds of crores of rupees, had to be unearthed.
The prosecutor told the court that Shah, arrested on July 25 in the money laundering, was "totally non-cooperative" during his questioning by the ED.
Advocate M S Khan, appearing for Shah, however, alleged that his client was being pressured and compelled to give various statements during his custody by ED officials.
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