JUDGE CRITICAL OF POLICE PROBE IN DELHI RIOTS CASES TRANSFERRED TO ROUSE AVENUE

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Wednesday transferred 11 judicial officers, including additional sessions judge (ASJ) Vinod Yadav, who was hearing the north-east Delhi riots cases.

ASJ Yadav was transferred from the Karkardooma Court to the Rouse Avenue court; and Special Judge (PC Act) (CBI) Virender Bhatt has been sent to Karkardooma.

Yadav has passed several orders criticising the Delhi Police’s probe in the riots, prompting Delhi Police commissioner Rakesh Asthana to form a special investigative cell (SIC) to monitor the progress in the cases. He also ordered that police officers who were posted in north-east Delhi during the riots have since been transferred, should be roped in for probe.

In one of the orders in July, Yadav imposed a fine of ₹25,000 on the Delhi Police for what the court called a “casual, callous and farcical” investigation into the complaint by a man who was shot in his left eye during the communal riots in February last year.

The public notice issued by the Delhi high court listing the names of the judges who have been transferred said: “..the Chief Justice and Judges of this Court have been pleased to make the following postings/transfers in the Delhi Higher Judicial Service with immediate effect.”

The transferred judicial officers have been directed to notify the cases in which they have reserved judgments or orders before relinquishing the charge, the public notice signed by Registrar General Manoj Jain said.

Last year, the Delhi high court designated two sessions and two magisterial courts for the trial of communal violence cases registered in north-east and Shahdara districts of the national capital.

Communal clashes broke out in north-east Delhi in February 2020, after violence between the Citizenship (Amendment) Act supporters and its protesters spiraled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and over 700 injured.