NEW DELHI: With the monsoon session beginning Monday, the names of CPM veteran Sitaram Yechury, Yogendra Yadav and some other eminent persons figuring in the Delhi Police’s supplementary charge sheet in February communal riots is set to reverberate in the House.
While the CPM issued a statement lambasting the Delhi Police, the Congress also threw its weight behind the Left party. The police, on its part, said raising questions on the fairness of the probe was unfair and that it won’t reply to the charges “at this stage”.
CPM’s Rajya Sabha member K K Ragesh has given suspension of business notice under Rule 267, demanding that the House expresses serious concerns on the Delhi Police making a reference to Yechury in the charge sheet.
A statement by the CPM politburo read, “The CPM condemns this obnoxious action by the Delhi Police to further the narrative of its political masters and urges the government to desist from such acts of criminalising peaceful political protests.
The party said it was “shocked by the brazenness with which the Delhi Police, acting under Home Minister Amit Shah, has tried to implicate prominent political leadership, academics, cultural personalities and activists in connection with the horrific communal violence in North East Delhi in February”. “No condemnation is strong enough for this act of crude partisanship and vengeance,” it added.
The party also alleged that it was clear “the BJP-RSS has gone about portraying Delhi riots being a deep-rooted conspiracy” by anti-CAA protesters. “his is in line with the growing pattern of the most blatant abuse of the police and other central agencies like CBI, NIA, ED to frame prominent opponents and demonise them.” The CPM also gave a call for protests against the actions of the Delhi Police.
“The politburo urges its units all over the country and appeals to all the parties, organisations and individuals who are committed to democracy and values of the Constitution, to protest this dastardly attack on democracy,” the statement said.
Coming out in support, the Congress accused the Delhi Police of bringing the criminal justice system to ridicule. “Delhi Police have brought the criminal justice system to ridicule by naming Yechury and many other scholars and activists in a supplementary charge sheet in the Delhi riots case,” former Union Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram tweeted on Sunday.
People using out of context lines to create controversy: Police
The Delhi Police on its part, said it was investigating role of all individuals who took part in the February riots and were behind the larger conspiracy of organising violence and inciting communal passion amongst communities. An official statement by the police said various interest groups are using social media platforms and other online portals to raise questions about the fairness of investigation.
“Some are taking a few lines out of the charge sheets filed in the courts out of context in order to create a controversy and doubt about the investigation. Their assertion is not true and, instead, motivated,” the statement said, adding that the Delhi Police “does not consider it appropriate and necessary to reply to them at this stage as the matter is sub judice”.
Earlier, the Delhi Police has denied media reports that it had named Yechury, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav, economist Jayati Ghosh, Delhi University professor and activist Apoorvanand and documentary filmmaker Rahul Roy “as co-conspirators” in a supplementary charge sheet filed in the north-east Delhi riots case.
It was reported that based on disclosure statement of three students— Pinjra Tod members and JNU students Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, and Gulfisha Fathima of Jamia Millia Islamia — arrested in the northeast Delhi violence case, the police had named them in the charge sheet.
“The disclosure statement has been truthfully recorded as narrated by the accused person Gulfisha Fatima, but a person is not arraigned as an accused only on the basis of a disclosure statement. However, it is only on the existence of sufficient corroborative evidence does further legal action is taken,” a police senior officer had said. The riots in the northeast district between February 23 and 26 had claimed 53 lives and left 581 injured, 97 of them with gunshot wounds.
