NEW DELHI: Chastsing police for showing no progress in the investigation of a riot case, months after registering the FIR, a Delhi court on Tuesday said: “This is really a sorry state of affairs.”
Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav made the remarks after he was apprised that no progress had been made in the investigation of a case registered in June 2021 on the complaint of one Nasir Ahmed and even persons named in the FIR had not been interrogated.
“This is really a sorry state of affairs,” ASJ Yadav said, adding that this case had not gotten the attention of either the Delhi Police Commissioner or the newly-constituted Special Investigation Cell (SIC) tasked with monitoring the probe in the riots cases.
He noted that the police were claiming that the circumstances during the riots in February 2020 and four weeks thereafter were difficult, followed by a pandemic due to which it could not investigate the cases properly.
"I wonder whether the police can take the same excuse qua the investigation of the case, P S Gokalpuri. The answer has to be ‘clear No’," ASJ Yadav said.
He directed the prosecutor to tell the court about the probe carried out by the police on the next date of hearing and asked that a copy of the order be sent to the Commissioner of Police for his reference to take appropriate steps.
Nasir Ahmed, a resident of Delhi’s Bhagirathi Vihar area, claimed that he witnessed the communal riots on February 24 and 25 and identified various persons out of a mob of 200-250 people who were rioting near Gokalpuri toll-tax.
He claimed that on February 24, the mob put up a loud public address system and exhorted people to vandalize, rob, and put on fire the houses and shops of persons belonging to the other community, while asserting that the police were with them.
He said that the mob allegedly stopped the persons passing through that area and, if found to be from the other community, they inflicted injuries upon them and burned their vehicles. He said he made several calls to the police, but to no avail.
Tahir Hussain trying to stall trial: Delhi Police tells high court
Delhi Police has told a high court that former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain was attempting to short circuit and stall the trial of a Northeast Delhi riots case by challenging the invocation of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act provisions against him.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Special Cell, filed his response to Hussain’s petition, stated, ‘Any aspersions cast on the grant of sanction can only be looked at by the trial court and the same does not fall within the adjudicatory realm of the writ court.’ It stated that ‘the petition is an abuse and misuse of process of law.
The petition has been filed on baseless, concocted, and absurd facts and circumstances.’ The response also said that while the trial court took cognizance of the offence on September 17, 2020, the petitioner has not challenged the same. Justice Mukta Gupta Tuesday directed that the Delhi Police’s response be brought on record. The matter is listed for hearing on November 29.