Delhi Court pulls upp police for failure to conduct proper probe in north-east violence, releases Tahir Hussain's brother Shah Alam, 2 others

New Delhi [India], September 2 : Karkardooma Court on Thursday has discharged Tahir Hussain's brother Shah Alam and said that when history will look back at the worst communal riots since partition in Delhi, the failure of investigating agency to conduct a proper investigation by using the latest scientific methods will torment the sentinels of democracy.
"I am not able to restrain myself from observing that when history will look back at the worst communal riots since partition in Delhi, it is the failure of investigating agency to conduct a proper investigation by using latest scientific methods, will surely torment the sentinels of democracy, " the Court said.
Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav also said: "I cannot restrain myself from observing that this case is a colossal wastage of the hard-earned money of tax-payers, without there being real intent of investigating the matter. "
Apart from Shah Alam, the Court discharged all the three accused persons namely Shah Alam, Rashid Saifi, and Shadab, from the case.
Three of them were chargesheeted by Delhi Police under various offences dealing with rioting.
The Court noted that the sort of investigation conducted in the instant case and the lack of supervision thereof by the superior officers clearly depicts that the investigating agency has merely tried to pull the wool over the Court's eyes and nothing else.
It observed that after investigating the matter for so long, the police has shown up only five witnesses in the matter; one is the victim, the other is Constable Gyan Singh, one Duty Officer, a formal witness and the Investigating Officer.
The court also held that the investigating agency has just tried to show the case as "solved" as the evidence brought on record by the investigating agency in the case in hand miserably falls short for framing charges against the accused persons.
Delhi Police has lodged an FIR on March 3, 2020, on the basis of two written complaints wherein, it was stated that the complainant was running a shop of furniture situated at main Wazirabad Road, Chand Bagh, Delhi and on February 27, 2020, when he visited his shop, he found its shutter broken and damaged and came to know that his shop had been attacked, looted and thereafter set on fire by the riotous mob. He further stated that cash amounting to around Rs.10-13,000 had also been looted from his said shop.
The Court noted that no recovery of any sort has been effected from any of the three accused persons and there is no independent eyewitness account of the incident available on record. The Court also observed that there is no CCTV footage/video clip of the incidents to confirm the presence of accused persons at the spot at the relevant time. Even there is no CDR location of the accused persons available on record, the court said.
The Court remarked that "a lot of time of this Court is being consumed by the cases like the present one, where there is hardly any investigation carried out by the police."
"The case appears to have been solved merely by filing this charge sheet without any real effort being made to trace out the eyewitnesses, real accused persons and technical evidence. This does not appeal to senses that nobody watched such a large crowd of rioters when they were on a spree of vandalism, looting and arson," The Court said.
"The complaint was required to be investigated with a fair amount of sensitivity and skillfulness, but the same is missing in this investigation. Recording of the statement of identification of Constable Gyan Singh (No.1192/NE) on 03.03.2020 is be-all and end-all of the entire investigation." The Court said adding that it cannot permit such cases to meander mindlessly in the corridors of the judicial system, sweeping away precious judicial time of this Court when the same is the open and shut case.
"The casualty in the matter is the pain and agony suffered by complainant/victim, whose case has virtually remained unsolved; callous and indolent investigation; lack of supervision by the superior officers of the investigation and criminal wastage of the time and money of the taxpayer, " the Court said.