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New Delhi: When history will witness the worst communal riots in Delhi since Partition, the probe agency’s failure to conduct a proper investigation using latest scientific techniques will certainly torment the watchdog of democracy, a Delhi court said on Thursday. Said while on leave. 2020. person in two cases relating to Northeast Delhi Riots.
In a critical note on the nature of Delhi Police’s investigation in the two cases, Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav observed that “the manner of investigation” and the “lack of supervision” by senior officers clearly shows that the Delhi Police has Only “tried to pull the wool over the eyes of the court and nothing else”.
The two orders come days after the same judge made strong remarks against the investigating officers in a different case (on riots) for not cooperating with the special public prosecutors appointed to argue northeast riots cases in the trial court. Was. It was observed by the judge that the police officer were not briefing Prosecutors to adequately argue the cases.
The court acquitted Shah Alam (26), Rashid Saifi (23), and Shadab (26), observing that the evidence brought on record by the Delhi Police in the two cases “falls badly” for framing of charges against them. Huh”. All three are out on bail and the court has ordered cancellation of their bail bonds and release of their bail after their release.
Alam is the brother of former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councilor Tahir Hussain, who has been accused of participating in a larger conspiracy to lead to the riots in Northeast Delhi in February 2020. Separately, there is also Hussain. charged up With the murder of Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer Ankit Sharma. Hussain is in jail now.
The court observed that the evidence gathered in both the cases gives rise to suspicion but does not create serious doubts against the accused. And, in case of doubt, the court is “within its authority to discharge the accused” as per law. This means that the court did not find enough evidence to prosecute, where the men would have to prove their innocence through the cross-examination of police witnesses.
In both the cases registered on 25 February 2020 at Dayalpur, all three were booked under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) such as rioting, mischief, damage to or damage to property, among others.
Court told lack of witnesses, enough evidence
Coming down heavily on the “rigorous investigation” conducted by the Delhi Police, the judge said there was no independent eyewitness in both the cases.
The chargesheet in the respective cases was based on the statements of beat constables of the area where the alleged incidents took place. The court, however, said the statements of these police officers were recorded much after the incident was reported – seven days in one case and eight days in the other.
The court questioned the silence and delay of the policemen. Considering that he was a beat constable and was a witness to the incident, he should have immediately reported to the local police station, the court argued.
The court observed that no recovery has been made from the accused, there is no CCTV footage/video-clip of the incident to confirm the presence of the accused at the spot.
Even the Call Detail Record (CDR) location of the accused was not available with the court. In the third case, the court did not accept the police’s attempt to rely on the CDRs of the three.
The court said that apart from the three, the police have not been able to identify and nab any other accused from the rioting mob of 150-200 in both the cases till date. It said, it tells about the efforts made by the police in this regard.
“It is incomprehensible that no one has seen such a large mob of rioters when they were on a spree of vandalism, looting and arson,” the court said.
‘Won’t let matters go to waste’
The judge recorded that around 750 cases were registered in connection with the riots, most of which are triable by his court. The court has got around 150 cases for hearing. However, it has framed charges in around 35, while many have been remanded back to the magistrate, as it was found that the offenses committed by the evidence produced did not make the cases triable by the sessions court. This means that they were not of a heinous nature.
But there are several cases of riots in which the police are “still busy filing supplementary charge sheets” leading to a large number of accused languishing in jail.
Such an approach, the court said, is wasting the court’s precious judicial time, as much of its time “is spent in cases like the present, where there is hardly any investigation by the police”.
According to the judge, complaints should be investigated with a fair amount of “sensitivity and tact”. It said that the only function of the police was to record the statements of two constables who were eyewitnesses in their respective cases.
The cases are a criminal waste of time, the court said, as it refused to allow the two cases to “run unnecessarily in the corridors of justice”.
The judge, however, expressed regret that the casualties in both the cases were the “pain and pain” suffered by the complainants.
(Edited by Polomi Banerjee)
Read also: A year later, Delhi riot victims struggle to cope with depression, nightmares and loss of livelihood
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