‘Very poor’ standard of probe in many riots cases, Delhi court says
NEW DELHI: A Delhi court, while framing the charges in a northeast Delhi riots case, has noted that the standard of investigation in a large number of matters pertaining to the February 2020 violence has been “very poor” and that police officers did not bring investigations to a logical conclusion after filing “halfbaked” charge sheets.
Additional sessions judge Vinod Yadav, in an August 28 order, said the police officers concerned (the investigating offispps cers, or IOS) do not appear before the court, either physically or through video-conferencing while charges are being framed. “...In a large number of cases of riots, the standard of investigation is very poor. After filing of charge sheet in the court, neither the IO nor the SHO [station house officer] nor the supervising officers bother to see what other material is required to be collected from the appropriate authority in the matters and what steps are required to be taken to take the investigation to a logical end. They don’t even bother to care for the queries of [special public prosecutors], if any, regarding the charge sheet and the further investigation which is supposed to have been conducted in the matters,” the judge said in a 13-page order.
“It is noticed that after filing the half-baked charge sheets in court, the police hardly bothers about taking the investigation to a logical end. The accused persons, who have been roped in multiple cases, continue to languish in jails as a consequence thereof. It is high time that the DCP of north-east district and other higher officers concerned take notice of the aforesaid observations and take immediate remedial action required in the matters. They are free to seek the assistance of experts in this regard, failing which there is likelihood of injustice being caused to the persons involved in these cases,” the court added.
Senior police officers said they had taken note of the court’s concerns. “The observations made by the court in the case and other shortcomings related to investigation of other cases will be addressed,” said deputy commissioner of police (northeast) Sanjay Kumar Sain.