A Delhi court on Tuesday criticised the police for clubbing a complaint pertaining to the February 2020 riots with another case on the basis of “unfounded assumptions” that the crime would have been committed by the same persons, Live Law reported.

The court said that a “half-hearted attempt” was made to show the completion of investigation into the complaint.

Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala refused to club a complaint by a person named Rinku with a first information report filed at the city’s Gokalpuri police station. Instead, he directed the police to take the complaint back and register a separate case based on it.

On September 25, the police had filed a supplementary chargesheet in connection with the FIR. A copy of Rinku’s complaint, along with related documents, was included in the chargesheet.

The court, however, said there was no basis for the investigating officer to do so, according to Live Law. “It was so done under this FIR, on the basis of unfounded assumptions that same would have been caused by same set of accused persons,” it said.

Judge Pramachala noted that the investigating officer had not found anything on Rinku’s complaint while filing the first chargesheet. On this account, he said, the complaint should have been separated from the FIR in question.

Clashes had broken out between supporters of the Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposing it in February 2020 in northeastern Delhi, killing at least 53 persons and injuring hundreds. Most of those killed in the violence were Muslims.

Court’s criticism in previous cases

Judge Pramachala has criticised the manner in which the police has handled cases pertaining to the riots on several earlier occasions as well.

On August 24, he acquitted a Muslim man in a case related to the riots, observing that the police had made “artificial statements” against him.

In a separate case on August 28, he accused the Delhi Police of “befooling” the court by relying on a video for evidence when such a video did not exist.

Similarly, on May 30, Metropolitan Magistrate Shirish Aggarwal, while acquitting another Muslim man, said with regard to a head constable who had been a witness in the matter: “It appears that his statement was procured and prepared falsely and belatedly to solve this case. … the police was already aware that its case was fabricated…”

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