A Delhi court on Tuesday ordered a first information report to be filed against Bharatiya Janata Party leader and state law minister Kapil Mishra for his alleged involvement in violence that broke out in the city in February 2020, Live Law reported.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Vaibhav Chaurasiya of the Rouse Avenue Courts held that there was enough material to warrant further investigation into whether Mishra committed a cognisable offence, Bar and Bench reported.

Cognisable offences under Indian law are serious crimes that threaten public safety or order. The police can register a case and make arrests for such crimes without court approval. The crimes Mishra is accused of are cognisable offences.

The court said that the evidence put forward by the prosecution pointed to the fact that Mishra was present in the area in question and that “all the things were corroborating”.

The court passed the order on a plea filed by 57-year-old Mohammad Ilyas.

Ilyas previously told Scroll that he had approached the police three times asking for a case to be registered against Mishra, but was told that they would register his complaint only against unspecified “rioters”.

In March, the Delhi Police had opposed the plea before the court, alleging a conspiracy to frame Mishra in the riots, The Wire reported.

Ilyas was among the handful of citizens who approached the courts after police refused to register their complaints and file an FIR against Mishra for his alleged involvement in the riots that engulfed North East Delhi in February 2020. Fifty-three people died in the violence. The majority of them were Muslims.

Reacting to Tuesday’s order, Ilyas told Scroll: “I'm feeling great. Finally, there is hope that the real culprits behind the riots will get punished as per law.”

However, Ilyas’ lawyer Mehmood Pracha told Scroll that the battle was not yet over. “I predict that the order will be stayed by a higher court,” he said. “Not that there is any weakness in our case, but I'm basing this prediction on my past experience of other orders of FIRs against police officers for involvement in riots that were subsequently stayed as well.”

Pracha also highlighted that Mishra is the law minister of Delhi but added that he was confident “that the truth shall prevail”.

During the riots, Justice S Muralidhar of the Delhi High Court had urged the Delhi police to consider registering first information reports against Mishra and other Bharatiya Janata Party leaders for inflammatory remarks that he said would qualify as hate speech. That very day, Muralidhar was transferred out of the Delhi High Court by the BJP-led Union government.

Allegations against Mishra

Communal riots erupted in North East Delhi on February 23, 2020 – the result of clashes between the supporters of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and those opposing it.

The Delhi Police alleged that the violence was part of a conspiracy involving students, activists and local politicians to defame the Narendra Modi-led government.

However, a fact-finding committee constituted by the Delhi Minorities Commission said that the riots were sparked by inflammatory remarks by BJP leaders, Kapil Mishra.

Scroll reviewed six applications filed before magistrate courts in 2020 asking for first information reports to be registered against Mishra. All the complainants alleged that Mishra played a direct and active role in inciting violence against Muslim communities during the riots.

The complainants state that Mishra was present at locations where violence occurred. They allege that he was accompanied by groups of armed men and made hate-filled speeches in various parts of North East Delhi on February 23 and 24.

His speeches, they allege, included slogans such as “desh ke gaddaro ko, goli maro saalo ko” (shoot the traitors), “mullo ke do sthan, kabristan ya Pakistan” (Muslims only belong in two places: the cemetery and Pakistan) and “katwe murdabad” (down with Muslims – “katwe” being a derogatory term for Muslims in Hindi). Mishra is also alleged to have declared that “mullas” (another derogatory term for Muslims) and protestors need to be taught a lesson.

Five years ago, the Indian capital saw intense riots in the wake of protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Of the 53 people killed, more than two-thirds were Muslim. As part of this special series, Delhi 2020, Scroll looks back at the violence and how the Modi government used it to tarnish the very idea of peaceful protest.

Also read: The futile, five-year struggle to lodge an FIR against Kapil Mishra