Hindustan Times (Delhi)

High court

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there were other inflammato­ry and hate speeches made by others, the court , which became even more indignant that no action had been taken despite the presence of so many videos, ordered that Patnaik and Ranjan watch them.

“The city is burning and a constituti­onal court cannot be blind in its constituti­onal duty,” the bench of justices S Muralidhar and Tawlant Singh observed.

In a jampacked court, the bench told Mehta that it would not allow a repeat of the 1984 antisikh riots to take place in the city, at least not under its watch.

Two days of violent clashes between largely-hindu supporters of the Citizenshi­p Amendment Act (CAA) and predominan­tly Muslim opponents of the law have left at least 27 people dead and at least 300 injured in the Capital, where the police have drawn criticism for failing to act promptly to break it up.

A group of protesters, mainly women, has been staging a sit-in at the Capital’s Shaheen Bangh neighbourh­ood since the middle of December, demanding a repeal of the law that proposes to fasttrack grant of citizenshi­p to nonmuslim minorities from Afghanista­n, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

The alleged inflammato­ry speeches, some targeted at the protesters at Shaheen Bagh, and others, more genericall­y, at anyone opposed to CAA, were seen to have fanned the tension, and caused the eruption of violence.

The Delhi high court was hearing a plea filed by petitioner­s Harsh Mander and Farah Naqvi seeking the registrati­on of first informatio­n reports (FIRS) against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Kapil Mishra, Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Verma for speeches that they claimed had incited the rioting in northeast Delhi. A video featuring Abhay Verma was also played in court on Wednesday.

“Just register FIRS. You showed alacrity in lodging FIRS for arson, why aren’t you showing the same for registerin­g FIR for these speeches? The more and more you delay, the more problems are getting created,” the court said in a two-hour-long hearing. The arson bit refers to the 11 FIRS registered over the recent incidents of violence in the city.

The court also said the police should seriously consider the consequenc­es that would ensue with every day’s delay in registerin­g FIRS not only on the basis of the video clips that were played in the court but all the other videos of speeches or provocativ­e actions by anyone, bearing in mind that the rule of law is supreme and that no one is above law.

The matter itself took a dramatic turn before it was finally heard by Justice S Muralidhar, the third senior-most judge in the Delhi high court, in the absence of the chief justice and his deputy.

When the matter was taken up, SG Mehta requested the court that the matter be adjourned for 16 hours and be taken up on Thursday, when he would file a detailed affidavit on the matter.the court, however, decided to take up the matter on Wednesday itself at 12.30pm.

The court sought to know from the SG whether he had seen the videos and sought his assistance.

The SG said that he had not seen the videos and argued that the petition seeking the registrati­on of FIRS was not urgent. This irked the court, which then played the four videos pertaining to hate speech. It also lashed out at the police, noting that all the TV channels had been relaying Kapil Mishra’s speech.

“As a police officer, have you watched the video? It has been relayed on every TV channel and I am amazed that you have not seen the videos. Even your commission­er has a TV in his room. Are you saying that none of you has watched the video?” Justice Muralidhar asked.

In the post-lunch session, special commission­er Praveer Ranjan stated that while he had watched three of the videos, he had not seen the speech made by BJP MLA Abhay Verma.

Mehta’s attempt to seek an adjournmen­t was objected to by Rahul Mehra, standing counsel (criminal) for the Delhi government, stating that an FIR ought to be registered against everybody as videos made out a cognizable offence.

Appearing for the petitioner­s, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves informed the court about the videos and said it was only after such speeches that the riots had broken out. He said an FIR for inciting mob violence should be registered.

When asked about the veracity of the videos, Gonsalves said, “They [the speakers] seem to be very proud of their statements. Arresting them would be a first step towards calming the situation”. The SG contended that there were videos from all sides involved in the violence, but the petitioner­s had chosen only these videos. “There’s selective public outrage based on these three videos,” said Mehta.

Mehta added that hate speeches were made by all sections during the violence, and that he had the videos to prove it. “If I start playing these clips, there will be an inflammato­ry situation,” said Mehta. He also accused the petitioner of lowering the morale of Delhi Police by showing the clips.

The court was not impressed by the argument. “By saying that, you’re painting the police in a worse picture,” said Justice Muralidhar. “When you have multiple clips of inflammato­ry speeches, what are you waiting for? Why aren’t you registerin­g the FIR? All the videos will be placed before the Police Commission­er and he should then take a conscious decision.”

BJP MP Parvesh Verma said he would respond with a comment after Thursday’s court hearing.

Abhay Verma, the MLA from Laxmi Nagar, said: “I didn’t give any speech and I didn’t shout any slogans like ‘goli maro’ [shoot them]. There was panic among people, especially traders, in the area. Most shops in Laxmi Nagar had shut. I had gone with my supporters to defuse tension. I convinced shop owners that nothing will happen and made them open their shops again. I have full faith in the judicial system.”

Kapil Mishra and Anurag Thakur did not respond to repeated calls and text messages.

The matter will be heard on Thursday.

In a separate hearing at midnight on Tuesday, the Delhi high court said this was the time for the authoritie­s to reach out to residents and show that there is security for everyone in the national capital.

“Highest constituti­onal functionar­y moves in Z+ security. This is the time to reach out and show that this security is for everyone,” a bench of justices Muralidhar and AJ Bhambhani said, hearing a plea filed by advocate Suroor Mander seeking emergency treatment and safe transfer of patients stuck at Al Hind Hospital.

The court then directed the police to ensure emergency treatment for the victims of violence and transfer them safely to GTB Hospital from Al Hind Hospital, where there weren’t sufficient facilities for treatment. The police informed the court on Wednesday that the court’s orders had been heeded. ablaze by a mob. I still have not been able to go inside to assess the damage,” said Suresh Kaushik, standing in knee-deep water outside his house after firefighte­rs put the flames out.

RESIDENTS FLEE

With security reaching these parts for the first time, dozens of families that had locked themselves in emerged with luggage to head to safer parts of the city.

“I was on my terrace; I could see men on the other side burning a vehicle and pelting stones. We asked police forces to escort us to our relative’s house safely and even when they helped us leave our house, the men were walking threatenin­gly towards us and asking the personnel to just move aside for a bit,” said Abdul Majid, a resident of Shiv Vihar.

Some of the violence, such as the one witnessed by Majid, continued on Wednesday – though the violence had abated significan­tly.

“We are in the process of identifyin­g the miscreants through investigat­ions of CCTV footages and other strong evidences we have,” said MS Randhawa, the police’s public relations officer.

Till Wednesday, he added, 106 people were arrested and 18 first informatio­n reports (FIR) registered.

Randhawa appealed to the public to share informatio­n or problems they face on the police telephone number-112. He gave out two additional numbers for people from the north-east district to reach out to for assistance – 22829334, 22829335.

“I appeal to the public not to believe in rumours. The situation has been brought under control by the Delhi Police. We are continuous­ly patrolling the area and I assure you that we will take strong action against any anti-social elements or miscreants creating trouble in the area,” he added.

MIDNIGHT ORDER

The Delhi Police, however, has been singled out by opposition parties as well as the courts for not acting on time. The most dramatic interventi­on by the courts camearound­12:30amonwedn­esday, when a high court bench ordered police to immediatel­y “deploy all resources” to rescue nearly 18 severely injured people at the Al Hind hospital in Mustafabad.

The injured were stuck since Tuesday evening, with mobs turning away several ambulances that attempted to reach the facility in order to take them to a bigger hospital.

“We kept getting calls from the hospital administra­tion and we were all trying our level best to reach the injured people on time. There have been instances when ambulances get stuck in traffic jams but this was an extraordin­ary situation. I have never felt this helpless,” said Shiv Ram, a paramedic in one of the ambulances that were turned around.

The patients were eventually evacuated around 1:30am.

Separately, a Supreme Court bench on Wednesday rebuked the Delhi Police for failing to act “profession­ally” and to check “unfortunat­e incidents”.

Law enforcing agencies allowed the “instigator­s of violence” to get away, when they should have acted “independen­tly” as per the law without waiting for somebody’s nod, the judges said while hearing an applicatio­n seeking its interventi­on in the riots.

The top court, however, did not look into the applicatio­n, saying the matter was being heard by the HC.

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