New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday asked the trial court to defer its hearing in the Israeli diplomat attack case, in which journalist Syed Mohammad Kazmi is the sole accused, to help him file a fresh petition challenging the transfer of the trial.
Kazmi is facing charges of conspiring with foreign elements and others for the terror strike.
The high court allowed him to withdraw his present petition challenging its administrative order on the transfer of his case from a trial court in Tis Hazari to Patiala House and asked him to file a fresh plea against a Delhi government notification shifting the trial in the case.
A bench of justices Pradeep Nandrajog and VK Rao also asked the trial court, which has fixed for October 30 as next date of hearing Kazmi`s case, to defer the hearing as the accused has to file a fresh petition.
In Patiala House Court, Additional Sessions Judge Daya Prakash is hearing Kazmi`s case.
Following a Delhi government notification on September 12, the cases under Delhi Police Special Cell, including Kazmi`s, have been transferred from various courts to a special Patiala House court.
Kazmi`s counsel had earlier told the bench that Additional Sessions Judge Atul Kumar Garg of Tis Hazari court has completed the hearing of arguments on framing of charges and it is unfair to transfer the case at this stage.
On July 16, the police had filed a supplementary charge sheet in the case.
The second chargesheet elaborated the earlier charges that the conspiracy was hatched outside India and it has been substantiated by reports procured by the probe agency from Israel and the Indian embassy in Iran.
Kazmi is the sole person accused in the first chargesheet in the February 13, 2012 attack in which an Israeli woman diplomat and her Indian driver were injured.
Kazmi has been charged under various provisions of the anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and other sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) including attempt to murder.
He has also been chargesheeted under the Explosive Substances Act.
The Israeli diplomat, Tal Yehoshua, and the driver of the embassy vehicle, were among four people injured in the blast.
Kazmi was arrested on March 6, 2012. He was granted bail by the apex court on October 19 last year.
The chargesheet also names Iranian nationals Houshang Afshar Irani, Masod Sedaghatzadeh, Syed Ali Mehdi Sadr and Mohammed Reza Abolghasemi as suspects in the case.
According to the chargesheet, Houshang Afshar Irani went to Bangkok and then to Kuala Lumpur, while Masod Sedaghatzadeh has been detained in Malaysia since March 14.
According to the police, Afshar had visited India on April 25, 2011 and left the country on May 6, 2011. He had come back to India on January 29, 2012 but left for Malaysia on February 13 evening, within hours after the attack on the Israeli diplomat here.
