Delhi riots: Court raps police for not providing accused person photos that prosecution relied on
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Arun Kumar Garg issued a show-cause notice to two officers.
A court in Delhi has issued a show-cause notice to two police officers for not providing photographs to a riots case-accused that the prosecution had relied on in a chargesheet filed in the case, PTI reported on Monday.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Arun Kumar Garg said he had asked the police to ensure that in all riots related cases pending before his court, the accused persons are supplied coloured photographs and CCTV footage in a timely manner, Live Law reported.
Vinod, the accused person in this particular case, told the court that he had been given a complete copy of the chargesheet but not coloured copies of photographs that the prosecution relied on, according to PTI.
The magistrate pulled up the deputy commissioner of police of North East Delhi and the investigating officer in the case for not complying with the order and issued them a notice.
“In case they [the police officers] wish to avail the opportunity of personal hearing on the said show cause notice, they should remain present on the next date of hearing failing which, appropriate order as per law shall be passed in the matter without giving any further opportunity of oral hearing to either of them,” Garg said, according to Live Law.
Courts in Delhi have pulled up the police multiple times for lapses in their investigation into the communal violence in the Capital in February last year, in which least 53 people, mostly Muslims, were killed.
The clashes had broken out between supporters of the Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposing it in North East Delhi.
On October 21, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Arun Kumar Garg had said that the city police will be held responsible if an investigating officer fails to follow court orders in the February 2020 Delhi violence case.
On September 3, Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav had criticised the police for failing to conduct a fair investigation in riots cases and to ensure that the victims get justice.
“I am not able to restrain myself from observing that when history will look back at the worst communal riots since partition in Delhi, it is the failure of investigating agency to conduct proper investigation by using latest scientific methods, will surely torment the sentinels of democracy,” Yadav had said.