NEW DELHI: A day after riots ended in northeast Delhi, leaving at least 35 people killed in its wake, the police set up two Special Investigation Teams (SIT) to probe the violence.
It also emerged that Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma, whose body was found in a drain Khajuri Khas area near his house on Tuesday, was stabbed over 250 times, revealing the brutality of the rioters. Police sources said the autopsy report brought out the horror of hundreds of stab wounds on the victim.
With fingers pointed at AAP councillor Tahir Hussain for Sharma’s murder, the party suspended him from its primary membership after the police filed a first information report (FIR) against him based on a complaint from Sharma’s family.
AAP head and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal distanced himself from Hussain, saying action must be taken against all who incited riots. Hussain, however, rejected the charges levelled against him.
By taking prompt action, Kejriwal got to claim the high moral ground, putting the BJP under pressure, as its leader Kapil Mishra’s alleged hate speech on Sunday last lit the fuse of the riots. Delhi’s calm was broken on that day after a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act in the Maujpur-Babarpur Metro station area turned violent.
The attacks began shortly after Mishra allegedly warned of impending chaos if the police failed to clear the road of protesters within three days.
After being taken to task by Delhi High Court judge S Muralidhar on Wednesday for inaction over hate speech, the police informed the court on Thursday that they have taken a conscious decision not to file FIRs against anyone at this stage as it would not be conducive to restoring peace. While Justice Muralidhar gave the police just one day to take a call on filing FIRs on hate speech, the new bench led by Chief Justice D N Patel put off the matter by four weeks.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing Delhi Police, urged the judiciary not to intervene till full normalcy is restored. He informed the court that 48 FIRs have been lodged in connection with the riots. Also, 514 suspects have been detained/arrested till now. The court was hearing a PIL filed by activist Harsh Mander. It also accepted Tushar Mehta’s request to implead the Centre in the PIL.