New Delhi: A court Monday left it to the discretion of the superintendent of prison to decide whether 2020 northeast Delhi riots accused Sharjeel Imam can access inside jail his PhD research material stored on a pen drive.Additional sessions judge Sameer Bajpai observed that while it would have “definitely” had “no problem” allowing access to books or printouts, the court would have “no control on the material” stored on a pen drive. “As such only the jail authorities can have control and monitor the use of the material by the applicant,” he said.On July 3, Imam’s counsel, Ahmad Ibrahim, moved an application seeking access to the pen drive for use on a computer available in jail. The plea stated that the material was not banned or restricted by Govt of India.The application said that in April, the court directed the superintendent of prisons to consider a similar request. While the then superintendent permitted Imam, also booked under the anti-terror law in a related case, to receive the pen drive from his counsel, the officer was transferred before it could be delivered. The new superintendent refused permission, stating that Imam could not access the material or use the prison computer system without a specific court order.The prison authorities submitted that “there would have been no problem if the material was like books, printouts, photocopies, etc., but the data stored on the pen drive may be vast in size and further it would be difficult for jail authority to censor the same”.Imam had enrolled as a doctoral scholar in modern history at Jawaharlal Nehru University before his arrest in Jan 2020.
