Delhi court pulls up police for ‘lackadaisical’ probe in riots cases

The judge said that the record shows that the special public prosecutor has not appeared in the case on several occasions

A Delhi court has pulled up the city police and the prosecution for their “lackadaisical” approach in handling the Delhi riots cases and said that no action has been taken by the commissioner and top officials despite repeated orders.

At least 53 people were killed in the northeast Delhi riots. (AP)

“Such a lackadaisical approach on the part of the prosecution as well as the investigating agency in riots cases has been repeatedly brought to the notice of not only the DCP [deputy commissioner of police] North East and joint CP (Eastern Range) but also brought to the notice of the Commissioner of Police, Delhi”.

“However, no steps for proper prosecution of the cases seem to have been taken by either of them, or if taken, have not yet been brought to the notice of this court. The aforesaid failure on the part of said police officers to take appropriate measures for prosecution of riots cases is causing avoidable delay in committal/trial of riots cases,” chief metropolitan magistrate Arun Kumar Garg said.

The court’s remarks came as the prosecutor failed to appear before the court despite repeated calls and the investigating officer (IO) appeared before the court late without reading the police file. The IO was also not able to answer the court’s queries. It was dealing with the arguments on framing charges against the accused in one of the riots cases.

The judge said that the record shows that the special public prosecutor has not appeared in the case on several occasions and that during the previous hearing, he arrived only after the matter was adjourned.

He directed the Delhi police commissioner to personally look into the issues and ensure proper prosecution of the riots cases, failing which he will be constrained to pass “an adverse order”, including imposition of adjournment costs on the state with a direction to deduct the same from the salary of the officers responsible for imposition of the cost.

He directed that an order copy of this case be sent to DCP north-east, joint CP (eastern range), the Delhi Police commissioner and the state Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal.