Delhi riots: Investigation standard 'very poor' in large number of cases, says court

The court also observed that in majority of the cases related to the February 2020 Delhi riots, the investigating officers have not been appearing in the court.

A Delhi court has said that the standard of investigation in a large number of 2020 northeast riots cases is “very poor” and sought the intervention of the Delhi Police Commissioner. Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav made the observations while framing charges against one Ashraf Ali for allegedly attacking police officials with acid, glass bottles and bricks during the communal violence on February 25, 2020. “It is painful to note that in a large number of cases of riots, the standard of investigation is very poor,” the Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) said, adding that in a majority of cases investigating officers (IOs) have not been appearing in court. Furthermore, ASJ Yadav said the police hardly bother about taking the investigation to a logical end after filing half-baked charge sheets, due to which the accused, who have been named in multiple cases, continue to languish in jails. “This case is a glaring example, wherein victims are police personnel itself, yet the IO did not bother to collect the sample of acid and to have its chemical analysis. The IO has further not bothered to collect the opinion about the nature of injuries,” he noted in an order dated August 28.