The Delhi High Court on Tuesday ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation to look into the death of a 23-year-old Muslim man who was beaten up and forced to sing the national anthem by policemen during the riots that broke out in the national capital in 2020, PTI reported.

Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani remarked that the investigation into the matter by the Delhi Police was “sketchy” and “conveniently sparing” of the persons suspected to have assaulted the man, named Faizan.

“The case presents allegations of gross violation of human rights, as the unlawful actions of the policemen, who are yet to be identified, were motivated and driven by religious bigotry and therefore would amount to a hate crime,” the court said.

A video shot on February 24, 2020, showed police officers beating up Faizan and four others while ordering them to sing the national anthem and chant “Vande Mataram”. Faizan was then allegedly detained at Delhi’s Jyoti Nagar police station.

The 23-year-old died at a city hospital less than 24 hours after he was released from the police station.

Faizan’s mother Kismatun then filed a petition before the High Court seeking an inquiry by a Special Investigation Team. Kismatun alleged that the police had illegally detained her son and denied him critical health care, due to which he succumbed to his injuries.

On Tuesday, the court allowed Kismatun’s petition for an inquiry and transferred the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

“It must be understood that mob vigilantism and mob violence do not cease to be so merely because these are perpetrated, not by ordinary citizens, but by policemen themselves,” the court said.

It added that the “element of abomination” gets aggravated if a hate crime is committed by persons in uniform.

The court noted that the question on the events that transpired when Faizan was detained at the Jyoti Nagar police station remained unacknowledged.

“The Investigating Officer does not appear to have recorded the statement of any independent person in relation to Faizan’s medical condition and how he was treated while in detention at the police station,” it said.

Justice Bhambhani remarked that the police had taken a ''very convenient stand” that closed-circuit television footage from the police station was not available, adding that this could not be countenanced.

“Even assuming that there was no custodial violence, the very fact that the police kept Faizan at the police station when he was evidently in need of critical medical care itself smacks of criminal neglect of duty, if not something worse,” the court said.

In its order, the court said that the Central Bureau of Investigation would be entitled to add other offences to the first information report in the case through the course of its probe.

“There is no gainsaying that what the Delhi Police have done so far is ‘too-little, too-late,’” it added.

In April, Kismatun, represented by advocate Vrinda Grover, had told the court that the her son’s death was “hate crime and custodial murder”, adding that it brooked “no further delay,” Live Law reported. Grover said that Faizan was “targeted for his religion”.

In 2022, another bench of the High Court had questioned the police on its delay in the case and had sought a status report.

Fifty-three persons were killed and hundreds more injured in the rioting that broke out in North East Delhi between February 23 and February 26, 2020, after protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act triggered a violent backlash against Muslim protestors. At least 38 of those killed were Muslim.

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