The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed a batch of petitions seeking an independent probe into the 2020 North-East Delhi riots, registration of FIRs against political leaders over alleged hate speeches and action against police personnel accused of misconduct, reported ANI.
A bench of Justice Vivek Chaudhary and Justice Manoj Jain also dismissed petitions relating to the December 2019 violence at Jamia Millia Islamia, where police were accused of excesses during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
“For the reasons mentioned in the judgments, both the petitions (batch) are dismissed,” the bench said. The detailed judgments are to be uploaded shortly, ANI reported.
In the North-East Delhi riots cases, Shaikh Mujtaba had sought registration of FIRs against BJP leaders Kapil Mishra, Anurag Thakur, Parvesh Verma and Abhay Verma over their speeches. Lawyers Voice sought FIRs over alleged hate speeches by leaders including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Manish Sisodia, Amanatullah Khan, Akbaruddin Owaisi and Waris Pathan.
CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat sought an independent probe into alleged excesses by police, Rapid Action Force personnel and other officials. Ajay Gautam sought an NIA probe into the alleged funding of anti-CAA protests, besides FIRs against political leaders for allegedly inflammatory speeches.
The Supreme Court had earlier directed the High Court to decide one of the pleas expeditiously.
In the Jamia-related cases, students alleged that police assaulted them during the protests. One petitioner, Nabila Hasan, who was then a law student, had also approached the National Human Rights Commission. The petitions sought an independent probe and, in some cases, transfer of the investigation from Delhi Police to an outside agency.
Delhi Police opposed the pleas, saying it had collected and preserved CCTV footage from cameras inside and outside the university and in the New Friends Colony area. It also argued that transferring the probe would widen the scope of the original proceedings, ANI reported.
(With ANI inputs)