By Betwa Sharma
Delhi: Last week, additional chief judicial magistrate, Vaibhav Chaurasia, from the Rouse Avenue Courts in India’s capital city, ordered the police to register a first information report (FIR) against Kapil Mishra of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the law and justice minister of Delhi.
This was the first time a judge ordered such action against Mishra in connection with the communal riots that resulted in the deaths of 53, the majority Muslim, in February 2020 in northeast Delhi.
The judiciary has taken five years to respond to Mohammad Ilyas’s plea to investigate Mishra’s alleged involvement in the riots, even though provocative remarks made by Mishra just hours before the riots were captured on video, were widely circulated and have consistently been available for the public to see.
Some eyewitnesses have submitted complaints describing grave offenses, the kind that, when alleged, require the police to register an FIR.
Ilyas alleged that he saw Mishra blocking a road and breaking carts belonging to Muslims and Dalits in Kardampuri. The police did nothing to stop him, and the deputy commissioner for northeast Delhi, Ved Prakash Surya, threatened those protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019.
Surya was the official standing next to Mishra when he made the remarks that many believed triggered the riots.
This story was originally published in article-14.com. Read the full story here.
