New Delhi, July 10 (IANS) The Delhi High Court while dismissing the petition filed by former JNU scholar Sharjeel Imam challenging the trial court order granting more time to the police to conclude the probe in a case against him, observed that the lockdown due the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the pace of the probe.
The high court noted that the report submitted by the Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) mentioned that due to the global COVID-19 pandemic a lockdown was imposed due to which the pace of the investigation was seriously disrupted.
“The aforesaid clearly depicts the reasons for not completing the investigation in 90 days,” said a single judge bench of the high court presided over by Justice V Kameshwara Rao.
This observation was made in response to the allegations levelled by the petitioner’s counsel, senior advocate Rebecca John who had said that the report of the APP does not satisfy the requirement under the law.
The court also declined John’s submission that the information given by the lector) Ed Smith last night, he is involved in picking the 13 and they picked purely for this pitch. I wanted clarification on the future going forward and I was given pretty positive feedback.”
Broad was the highest wicket-taker for England in their two previous Test series. He admitted that the decision to drop him has been a hard one for him to understand.
“I’m not a particularly emotional person but I have found the last couple of days tough. To say disappointed is an understatement, I’ve been frustrated, angry, gutted, because it is quite hard to understand,” he said.
“I’ve probably bowled the best I ever have in the last couple of years. I felt like it was my shirt having been in the team during the Ashes and in South Africa.”
Broad however said that England are in a unique position considering all their fast bowlers are fit to play.
“Very rarely do you get all your bowlers fit like we have got now. Part of my strength as a cricketer has been that I have always been fit and available for selection.
“So I was frustrated by the fact that I expected to get a place in the team as everyone else. Chris Woakes, Sam Curran all bowling pretty well here, all probably deserve to be in the 11 but aren’t.”
The 34-year-old, who is 15 wickets away from becoming the second England bowler after Anderson to go past 500 Test wickets, said that he is also glad to be feeling frustrated. “But also I am quite pleased I feel frustrated, gutted and angry because if I didn’t then I would have had a different decision to make. I have nothing to prove, the selectors know what I can do and when I get that opportunity again you can bet that I will be on the money,” he said.
–IANS
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