Situation after violence in Delhi at Mustafabad east Delhi in February 2020. (Express Photo by Amit Mehra)

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday transferred to another bench of the HC a plea that sought quashing of reports by “private and extrajudicial commissions” pertaining to violence that occurred during the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots.

A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad observed that matters pertaining to the same controversy are assigned to Divisional Bench-II, and thereafter directed the transfer of the plea to the said bench, which is headed by Justice Siddharth Mridul. The matter is next listed on February 10.

The Central government in its affidavit dated September 19, 2022 has informed the court, that this “sinister practice” has now become a norm wherein after certain crimes, a “motivated malicious sinister device is created by certain vested interest individuals, private organisations, NGOs, etc to give the offence political/communal flavour of being backed by the government of they day, helping a particular community” and discrediting the statutory investigation that is happening in the case.

The Centre has alleged that these “private organisations first create a social media storm and generate a biased narrative accusing the government of the day of being the mastermind of such offence against the said particular community/caste”. The narrative then metamorphs into a national debate by a section of the media and social media influencers who also share the same vested interest and mostly operate unregulated, it said.

This story was originally published in indianexpress.com . Read the full story here