NE Delhi violence: Court seeks explanation from DCP over further investigation without permission

New Delhi [India], October 17 : A Delhi court hearing the North East Delhi riots case has sought an explanation in writing from the DCP (North East) over the 'half-hearted' further investigation of the case without taking permission from the court and filing a supplementary charge sheet.
The court has asked the DCP to appear in person and give an explanation. This matter is at the stage of arguments on charge.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Pulastya Pramachala of Karkardooma Court on Monday said that the supplementary chargesheet being filed by the Investigating Officer (IO) with forwarding from SHO and ACP, taking a contrary stand as taken by them in the past, cannot be accepted without seeking clarification and explanation from the investigating agency.
"The court shall be interested to know as to how the further investigation was being done without taking any permission from the court as per Section 173(8) Cr.P.C., that too in a hearted manner, with probably a pre-determined objective to show that all the incidents had taken place on a particular date and time," ASJ Pramachala noted.
The court directed, "Therefore, learned DCP (N/E) is called upon to go through the orders passed in this case since beginning till date, so as to be acquainted with the different stand taken by the prosecution at different points of time."
The court also said that this case was already referred to learned DCP (N/E) in the past, so as to point out such an approach of IO and the delay being caused in the case.
It is expected that the learned DCP (N/E) himself or some other responsible senior officer shall appear before the court with an explanation in writing, which is not known, courtesy half-hearted investigation done by the IO, the court said in the order.
The court said that initially 25 complaints were clubbed in this case. the court had directed that only 17 complaints shall be entertained in this case.
The court noted that there had been a lot of fluctuations and ups and downs in this case in the stand being taken by the prosecution since the beginning till date. As per the latest supplementary chargesheet filed on May 17, 2023, IO has taken the stand to prosecute this case on 22 complaints out of 25.
The court took note of the fact that the new stand of IO is based upon the recording of fresh statements of some of the complainants, so as to show that they had mentioned the wrong date and time of the incident at their premises initially.
The judge took a serious note and said, "This is a very disturbing trend of investigation, where after the filing of a chargesheet taking a stand by the prosecution, IO records statement at any subsequent point of time as per his wish, even without seeking any permission from the court and in defiance of laws under section 173(8) Cr.P.C."
"The lack of seriousness in the stand being taken by the prosecution is well reflected in the fluctuations in the same since beginning till date," the judge in the order passed on October 16.
The court said that on perusal of the latest statements recorded by IO of some of the complainants (which were recorded without any formal permission from the court) dated 08.04.2023.
"I also find that these complainants did not claim to be eyewitnesses of their incidents and while modifying the date and time of incidents at their premises, they referred to some neighbours giving such information to them. Who were those neighbours? It is worth reminding here that for each incident, the date and time of happenings cannot be based on hearsay evidence," said the court.
The matter has been listed on November 20, 2023, for further hearing.