A Delhi court has ordered probe into an incident related to the 2020 Delhi riots, in which police personnel were videographed allegedly beating some men from the minority community and forcing them to sing the national anthem.
Magistrate Udbhav Kumar Jain of Karkardooma Court ordered registration of a First Investigation Report (FIR) against one Tomar, the Station House Officer (SHO) of Jyoti Nagar police station in February-March 2020, under Sections 295-A/323/342/506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The court passed the order on a complaint filed by one Mohd Waseem.
As per the complainant, he had gone to search for his mother on February 24, 2020, during the riots, when he allegedly saw Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former MLA Kapil Mishra leading an unlawful assembly and shooting at the protestors.
Waseem claimed that police started firing tear gas shells on the protestors with a thick cannon gun which resulted in a dense smoke. The complainant tried to escape from the rioting area but fell down.
He alleged that police officials were supporting Mishra and others.
Later some policemen, on the instructions of the SHO, allegedly beated the complainant along with a few other injured people and made them chant slogans like Jai Shri Ram and Vande Mataram.
The incident was also recorded on video by a few police personnel.
The Counsel appearing for Waseem told the court that the SHO allegedly forced Waseem and his father to sign a paper carrying content not written by him. The complainant was further asked to make statements to the media under the SHO’s directions, which he did under fear.
Waseem claimed that he later sent an email to top police officials and the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) but no action was taken.
The complainant then moved the Court under Section 156(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code seeking probe into the incident.
Noting that the police officials had engaged themselves in hate crimes against the complainant/victim, the Court observed that they could not be protected under the garb of sanction as alleged offences committed by them could not be said to have been committed while acting or purporting to act in the discharge of their official duty.
The Magistrate directed the current SHO to conduct an investigation by a responsible officer not below the rank of Inspector to conduct a probe in the present matter and investigate the role of other unknown police officials involved in the commission of alleged offences.
It further observed that the action taken report (ATR) merely denied the complainant’s (Waseem) allegations and did not mention any substantive steps taken for conducting a preliminary inquiry.
It said the ATR was silent on the aspect of CCTV footage of the incident, which the IO should have inquired into.
The Magistrate remarked that it seemed that the IO was more concerned about the police officials and either he failed to make inquiry against the alleged accused no.3 (former MLA Mishra), or tried to cover up the allegations against the said accused.
The Court then directed the complainant to approach an MP/MLA court for registration of a case against Mishra.
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