Court: Investigation against accused persons completed, prosecution may argue on charges in North East Delhi riots case

New Delhi [India], September 4 : Delhi's Karkardooma court on Wednesday ordered that the prosecution may start addressing arguments on charge as the investigation regarding the charge sheeted accused is completed.
The court said that in its written submissions, as filed by the prosecution, it is mentioned that the investigation qua the accused persons is complete, which must mean that the investigation is complete qua all the accused persons as charge-sheeted till date and not only against the applicants.
As such, the prosecution has disclosed that the investigation is complete and the matter is ripe for hearing arguments on charge, the court held.
Accused Athar Khan, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Meeran Haider and Natasha Narwal & Devangana Kalita prayed the Court to ask the prosecuting agency to disclose if the investigation is complete, so that the court can proceed with the arguments on charge.
It was submitted that the FIR was registered on March 6, 2020 and after invoking the provisions of UAPA on
19.04.2020, the main charge-sheet was filed on September 16, 2020, after more than six months from the date of registration of the FIR.
Subsequently, the first supplementary charge sheet was filed on October 22, 2020, followed by the second on February 23, 2021, the third on March 2, 2022, and the fourth on June 7, 2023.
It was also submitted that the last supplementary charge-sheet (the fourth supplementary charge-sheet) was filed after three years and three months from the date of FIR but still, the investigating agency said that the investigation was still continuing and the result thereof would be submitted before the court in due course.
It was the allegation of the applicants that in the main charge-sheet as well as in all the supplementary charge-sheets, the investigating agency has mentioned that the investigation is still continuing.
There should be an end to it somewhere and if according to the investigating agency the investigation is still continuing, the Court cannot proceed to consider the matter for charge, the applicants contended.
On the other hand, Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Amit Prasad submitted that there is sufficient material before the court to proceed with the matter for consideration on charge and by moving the present applications, the applicants are unnecessarily delaying the matter.
SPP Prasad also submitted that the court had already fixed the matter for arguments on charge, but as the applicants have moved the present applications, the matter got delayed.
The court observed, "No doubt, that for considering any matter on charge, the Court should only have sufficient material before it, and some material like FSL reports, etc. which is left in the charge-sheet may come later on, but the situation in the matter in hand is different."
"It is not the case here that after considering the matter for charge and after initiation of the trial, the Court will wait for a few formal reports on some facts, but the situation here is a bit peculiar, that the prosecution, even in the last supplementary charge-sheet has stated in general, that the investigation is still continuing and the result thereof shall be submitted before the court in due course," the court said.
The special judge referred to judgement in State Vs. Mohd. Qasim and Others by the Delhi High Court, which made it clear that after filing the charge-sheet and before hearing arguments on charge, the court may put a question to the prosecution, and the prosecution will inform the court as to whether the charge-sheet has been finally filed against the accused persons and whether the case is ripe for hearing arguments on charge.
The court said that As far as the case in hand is concerned, keeping in view the mentioned judgement of the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi and the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case, the court holds that the prosecution must inform the court if the charge-sheet has been finally filed and the case is ripe for hearing arguments on charge.