NEW DELHI: A city court has sought an explanation from Delhi Police for allegedly removing the offence of arson in its supplementary chargesheet filed in a northeast Delhi riots case despite cognisance already having been taken for the penal section.
The court noted that the investigating officer and SHO concerned failed to indicate any provision of law that authorised them to do so. Chief metropolitan magistrate Arun Kumar Garg said the supplementary chargesheet had been mechanically forwarded by the SHO and ACP. A bare perusal reflected that the IO had removed the offence under IPC Section 436 against all accused.

IO, SHO, ACP to give separate answer to court

The court sought separate explanations from the IO, SHO and ACP in this regard.

In another riot case, the court was informed that the special public prosecutor (SPP) was out of India and an adjournment was sought for arguments on the charges. A perusal of the file reflected that the SPP had last appeared in the court in November 2020 and thereafter only on August 13, 2021.

The court reiterated that it had been repeatedly brought to the notice of the DCP (northeast) as well as the Delhi Police commissioner that SPPs were not appearing in riots cases.

“It has also been communicated that they (police) should ensure the presence of SPPs before the court on every date fixed in the matter. In case an SPP is not available on any particular date, a substitute should be deputed and properly briefed by the SPP concerned so that proceedings are not stalled due to non-representation of the state. However, all the aforesaid directions have fallen on deaf ears,” the court said in its order.

LG was requested by the court to take appropriate action to ensure that the state was properly represented in all riots cases on every date of hearing.

The judge said in almost all riots cases, the prosecution was relying on certain photographs extracted from CCTV footage/video, but their coloured copy and CCTV footage were not being supplied to the accused without specific direction of the court, which could lead to delay in committal/trial of the cases.

“I deem it appropriate to direct the DCP (NE) to ensure supply of coloured photographs and CCTV footage to all the accused in all matters pertaining to the northeast Delhi riots pending before this court against proper acknowledgement within three days from today and to file a compliance report,” said CMM Garg.

This story first appeared on timesofindia.indiatimes.com