Can’t wait endlessly for forensic report: HC on man ‘forced’ to recite the anthem

THE DELHI High Court on Thursday said that it "cannot wait endlessly" for the forensic analysis report of certain video footage in connection to the death of a 23-year old man in the 2020 Delhi riots, and listed the matter for an “in chamber hearing” next month.

The High Court was hearing the plea of the mother of the deceased, who was seen in a purported video lying injured on the ground as security personnel forced him to sing Vande Mataram and the national anthem during the riots. The petitioner, Kismatun, has sought a court-monitored SIT probe into her son's death.

In the plea, Kismatun alleged that her son Faizan was “targeted, brutally assaulted” and “injured by policemen” in Kardampuri and then subsequently “illegally detained” in an injured condition at the Jyoti Nagar police station, where he was denied timely critical medical care, resulting into his death at a hospital later.

A single-judge bench of Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani was informed by the Delhi Police counsel that forensic analysis of certain video footage was to be concluded by the National Forensic Sciences University, Gujarat, which has now asked for similar hard disks for “reference”.

Meanwhile, senior advocate Vrinda Grover, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that forensic examination of the DVR is “not central to a decision” in the current matter.

During the Thursday hearing, the High Court orally observed that the analysis cannot be a “never ending process”, and that it must end within a “reasonable time”. The court also noted that the analysis was pending for almost 10 months — first in Delhi, and now in Gujarat.

The police’s counsel, meanwhile, said that he would proceed without waiting for the report any longer, urging the court to permit him to make in-chamber submission, without the presence of the petitioner or her lawyer as the matter pertains to a “wider investigation”.

The court, thereafter, said that it will first hold the in-chamber hearing in the absence of the petitioner, and if it is found that the submissions pertain only to the deceased, the petitioner’s counsel would also be heard.