The Delhi High Court on Tuesday observed that the Delhi police’s status report detailing the investigation undertaken into the death of a 23-year-old Muslim man during the anti-Muslim pogrom in national capital in 2020, had nothing substantial in it.

A video shot on 24 February, 2020, showed policemen beating up the man named Faizan, and four other Muslim men, while ordering them to sing the national anthem and chant “Vande Mataram.” Faizan was then detained at the Jyoti Nagar police station where he was brutally tortured by the cops. He died soon after he was released.

The police submitted a status report in a sealed cover on its investigation into the case.

On Tuesday, Justice Mukta Gupta of the High Court said that the status report submitted by the police was “neither here nor there,” PTI reported.

The High Court asked the police to share the status report with the counsel for the petitioner, Vrinda Grover, after she told the court that it was filed in a sealed cover even though there was no such order.

“I am a little surprised with this sealed cover. I am mother of the deceased victim here. If it was not for my petition, there would have been no investigation whatsoever. Today, it is being filed in a sealed cover,” Live Law quotes Faizan’s mother as saying to the court.

Faizan’s mother Kismatun had filed a plea before the High Court seeking an inquiry by a Special Investigation Team. She claimed that the police had illegally detained her son and denied him critical health care due to which he succumbed to his injuries.

Justice Gupta on Tuesday asked the city police to explain why Faizan’s post-mortem report recorded 20 injuries, while a medical report before his detention in police custody had noted only three injuries.

The court also questioned why the police had not recorded the statements of the four others who were beaten up, and were witnesses.

“In this case, you [police] have not taken the help of eyewitnesses but gone all over the world,” the PTI quoted judge as saying.

He asked: “If these were the four eye witnesses, till date you’ve not bothered to take statements. What is the kind of investigation you have taken?”

Grover who appeared for Faizan’s mother said to the court: “One is when he is beaten with others on the road and there is a set of policemen. Then the police itself takes him to the GTB hospital. After GTB hospital, some of them including my son is taken to Jyoti Nagar police station, kept there. Not one single line of investigation into Jyoti Nagar police station. He is kept over night in illegal detention when he is about to die. He is released. Till date, they have even refused to seal documents, the duty roster etc of Jyoti Nagar police station, leave aside any questioning of who was at duty that night.”

In an hearing during last year, the police had told the court that they were not able to identify the officers in the video footage of the incident, as they were wearing helmets and were not wearing name plates. The police also said that they had interrogated a head constable in the matter.

This article first appeared on maktoobmedia.com