NEW DELHI: Delhi Police has been fined Rs 25,000 by a Delhi court for mishandling a case linked to the riots of February 2020. Additional sessions judge Vinod Yadav pulled up Delhi Police and observed that the SHO of Bhajanpura and other supervising officers failed miserably in their statutory duties. He said that riot victim Mohammed Nasir can approach a court of law for action against Delhi Police.
Nasir, who was shot in the eye during the riots, had complained against six people in his locality, identifying each one by name. One of the accused is Naresh Gaur, a former BJP MLA. When the police clubbed his complaint with a completely unrelated case, he approached the Metropolitan Magistrate.
The lower court upheld his petition and demanded the police file a FIR in the case, upon which the police challenged the order in the sessions court.
Observing that case diaries have not been maintained in accordance with the law, the court said that when two separate complaints disclosing cognisable offences are filed by two different complainants, there are no provisions under which they can be clubbed.
"If the grievance of the respondent is analysed, then it would be clearly apparent that the respondent had set out a counter version and the same was not covered within the principle of sameness," reads the order.
Questioning how the police gave a clean chit to the accused without any investigation, the judge said: "After looking at the case, it is evident that the police was working to save the accused." The court also told the Delhi Police Commissioner that investigations in such cases be conducted in a proper manner.