A special court on Monday rejected an application filed by lawyer-activist Arun Ferreira, an accused in the Elgaar Parishad case, seeking directions to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to submit an order from a competent authority for interception of emails.
On a separate application filed by lawyer Surendra Gadling, the court directed the jail authorities to return the letters addressed to him that were not delivered.
Last month, Ferreira had submitted that certain emails relied on as evidence by the prosecution were “intercepted” without authorisation and sought directions to the NIA to submit an order from a competent authority for the interception. The NIA denied that there was any interception, stating that the emails referred to by Ferreira were downloaded with proper procedure from co-accused Rona Wilson’s electronic device.
“As such, at no point of time, there was any interception carried out and the question of obtaining orders from the competent authority to carry out the same does not arise at all,” the NIA had said in its reply to Ferreira’s plea.
Gadling had approached the court earlier this month, stating that prison authorities had not delivered letters sent to him by his lawyer and his family. He had submitted that a letter on legal citations sent to him by his lawyer and another by his wife, which also included a money order, was received by the jail as per records but never delivered to him. He had sought action and compensation from the jail authorities in this regard.
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Special Judge Rajesh Katariya directed Taloja jail authorities to provide the letters belonging to Gadling to him.
Meanwhile, on Monday, the accused also claimed that they are yet to be provided all the cloned copies of the electronic evidence seized by the prosecution.