New Delhi, Jul 22 (PTI) A Delhi court on Tuesday permitted former AAP MLA Naresh Balyan, who is arrested in a MCOCA case, to have one phone call and one “e-mulakat” per week.
Special judge Dig Vinay Singh was hearing Balyan’s plea, saying he had been diagnosed as a “psychiatric patient” and his mental health depended on regular family interaction.
He said he was previously allowed to have e-mulakat or online meetings with family, but the privilege was “suddenly revoked”.
Telephonic conversations with his family was denied or inconsistently permitted, the plea alleged.
“Merely because a person is in custody during the trial of a case, the person does not lose his fundamental rights. This court is satisfied that, with certain restrictions on telephonic communications/ e-mulakat, permission can be granted to an undertrial in MCOCA as well,” the court said.
Observing Balyan was stated be suffering from psychiatric problems, the court said even otherwise, mentally sound and healthy inmates should be permitted to speak to family members at least once a week, to help maintain their mental health.
“The applicant (Balyan) is permitted to have one telephonic conversation and one E-mulakat per week, each lasting five minutes, specifically, five minutes of audio conversation and five minutes of e-mulakat,” the judge said while imposing certain conditions for the conversations and e-mulakat. PTI MNR MNR AMK AMK
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