By APOORVA MANDHANIBISMEE TASKIN / The Print
New Delhi: From William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to elements of the periodic table such as Sodium, Neon and Radium — several witnesses in the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots conspiracy case have been given ‘secret identities’ for “protection”.
According to FIR no. 59/2020, filed on 6 March 2020, the Northeast Delhi riots were a planned conspiracy “hatched by JNU student Umar Khalid and his associates”.
The chargesheets in the case, as well as court orders, rely on statements made by several protected witnesses including Bond, Saturn, Smith, Echo, Sierra, Helium, Crypton, Johny, Pluto, Sodium, Radium, Gama, Delta, Beta, Neon, Hotel, Romeo, Juliet, and James.
ThePrint has copies of the FIR, chargesheets and court orders.
Sources in the Delhi Police told ThePrint that while the naming of protected witnesses is done randomly, the protection itself has been granted under Section 44 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The section, which deals with provisions to grant protection to witnesses who are perceived to be under threat, says their identity may be kept secret if the court feels that the life of such a witness is in danger. The court may keep the identity and address of a witness secret, on an application made by a witness before it or by the public prosecutor. The court may also do it on its own.
The court needs to record its reasons in writing if it decides to grant such protection to any witness.
“During investigation if it is found by the investigating officer and deemed fit that a particular witness has a potential threat to life, then he or she is given a pseudonym for protection. More often, in sensitive cases, like the Delhi riots case, several witnesses were unwilling to come forward and record their statement in front of the investigating team out of fear of those accused, harm to their life and future repercussions,” said a source in the Delhi Police.
He added that in this case, several witnesses were apprehensive of coming forward and were then granted protection through applications filed before the court by the public prosecutor.
According to sources, the naming of these protected witnesses is random.
“There is no pattern in naming them. The addresses of these individuals are also hidden from public view. Likewise, to protect identity the names are hidden, but to keep the segregation and make the process of addressing their statements easier, they are given different names by the investigators,” said the source quoted above.
“The only focus on naming them is to make one distinct from another and easy,” he added.
This story was originally published in theprint.in . Read the full story here