Delhi Riots: Court Raps Police Over Clubbing FIRs And Implicating Accused Based On 'Manipulated Video', Asks Commissioner To Take Action

A Delhi Court has recently rapped the Delhi Police over clubbing of six FIRs in a 2020 North-East Delhi riots case, observing that the concerned IO “shrugged off” his duty to properly investigate the 6 complaints. It also slammed the Police for implicating an accused on the basis of “manipulated piece of video.”Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala of Karkardooma Courts referred the matter to the Commissioner of Police to make assessment of the conduct of IO and to take suitable steps.The judge acquitted one Sandeep Bhati in FIR 98 of 2020 registered at Karawal Nagar police station. The case was registered on the basis of information received from Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital regarding admission of an unknown injured person- Shahrukh. In his statement, the injured said that during the riots, a riotous mob dragged him out of an auto, started beating him with sticks and stones after which somebody fired upon him as a result of which he received gunshot injuries upon his left leg and chest.The concerned IO had clubbed 8 more complaints in the case. A final stand was taken to prosecute six complaints. This stand remained based on the presumption that same mob would have been involved in those six incidents as well.In its order passed on January 08, the judge noted that in the name of investigation of six complaints, IO only recorded statement under Section 161 of Cr.P.C. and prepared site plan for three complainants.“IO even did not remember about preparing three site plans and it was only during cross examination by defence that IO admitted his signature on these three site plans. Apart from aforesaid steps, nothing more was done to investigate into other six complaints. IO even did not confirm as to when did these six incidents had actually taken place,” the Court said.Noting that none of the six complainants had seen their respective incident, the Court said that the IO did not bother to find out source of their information or any witness to such incidents.“Thus, it is well apparent that IO literally shrugged off his duty to properly investigate all these complaints and to submit his report based on complete investigation. That is the reason that in the charges exact time of such incidents were not mentioned. There is no concrete evidence on the record of this case, except testimonies of these complainants, to establish the alleged incidents and reasons thereof,” it said. Furthermore, the judge noted that Bhati was identified in one video only with duration of 7 seconds. However, it said that the IO did not use longer part of the video and rather cut short it for 5 seconds, to omit the portion showing role of accused as stopping others from assaulting the victim.“Thus, it remains without any doubt that IO did not investigate this case properly and accused herein was falsely implicated in this case on the basis of video Ex.PW16/V-1. As already observed herein above, apart from this video, prosecution did not come up with any other evidence against accused,” the Court said.The judge directed that since the task of proper and complete investigation into the six complaints was to be completed, separate cases be registered on the basis of the said complaints and a final report of investigation be filed in the matter.Click here to read order

Delhi Riots: Court Raps Police Over Clubbing FIRs And Implicating Accused Based On 'Manipulated Video', Asks Commissioner To Take Action

Nupur Thapliyal

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