New Delhi Mar 23 PTI A Delhi court on Wednesday deferred for tomorrow its order on the bail plea of former JNU student Umar Khalid in a case of larger conspiracy in connection with Delhi riots in February 2020Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat who was scheduled to pronounce the order Wednesday posted the matter for Thursday saying it was not readyThe court had reserved the order on March 3 after hearing arguments from the counsel appearing for Khalid and the prosecutionDuring the argument the accused had told the court that the prosecution lacked the evidence to prove its case against himKhalid and several others have been booked under the anti-terror law UAPA in the case for being the masterminds of the February 2020 riots which had left 53 people dead and over 700 injuredThe violence had erupted during the protests against the CAA and the National Register of CitizensBesides Khalid activist Khalid Saifi JNU students Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita Jamia Coordination Committee members Safoora Zargar former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain and several others have also been booked under the stringent law in the case PTI UK SA

New Delhi Nov 25 PTI A Delhi court on Thursday said that the coordination between the police officials and prosecution in the riots cases saw marked improvement over the last few monthsIt also noted the probe has been good in some cases and not good in othersAdditional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat made the remarks while framing charges of rioting arson and mischief against five accused named Gulfam Shanu Atir Osama and Zarif in one of the February 2020 riots cases to which they pleaded not guilty and claimed trial Before parting I must state that investigation in the riots cases have been in some cases good and in some cases not good but over the last few months under the effective supervision of worthy DCP Sanjay Kumar Sain the coordination between the police officials and prosecution and in ensuring the presence of the police officials and diligence in filing reports and supplementary charge-sheets by SHO Rajeev Bhardwaj have seen marked improvement In October the judge had pulled up the police officers over lack of coordination and their confused conduct in connection with a riots case In August he had come down heavily on the police for investigating a riots case for nine months without even knowing the case details Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi in February 2020 after violence between the Citizenship Amendment Act supporters and its protesters spiraled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and over 700 injured PTI AAK RKS RKS

New Delhi Nov 24 PTI A Delhi court has ordered the police to investigate whether a deliberate attempt was made to shield five men who were discharged in a February 2020 riots case due to the lack of sufficient evidence Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat discharged five men accused of allegedly being part of a riotous mob looting a medical shop and house of the complainant Firoz Khan and taking away medicines and cosmetics worth about Rs 22-23 lakh on February 25 2020 The judge said the accused were not let off because the incident in question did not happen or that they were falsely implicated but merely for the reason that there was no sufficient evidence produced against them Let the DCP North-East District conduct an enquiry into the manner in which the investigation was conducted by the IO in this case to find out whether or not there had been any deliberate attempt to shield the offenders and submit a report to this Court on the next date of hearing he ordered The sessions judge further noted that Firoz Khan was the only witness in the case who claimed to have identified the accused as assailants and that too from the photographs shown to him in the police station There should be sufficient and legally admissible evidence on the basis of which charges can be framed against an accused which is lacking in the instant case ASJ Bhat stated in the order dated November 22 He said the charge sheet did not indicate whether or not the investigating officer IO made any efforts to trace other witnesses It is not clear as to whether the IO chose not to find out any other witness or whether no other person came forward who had seen the incident in question the judge said Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi in February 2020 after violence between the Citizenship Amendment Act supporters and its protesters spiraled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and over 700 injured PTI AAK SA

New Delhi Sep 28 PTI Irked over Delhi Police seeking adjournment in a very casual manner in a riots case a court here directed the police commissioner to conduct an inquiry and deduct Rs 5000 from the salary of the responsible officer Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Arun Kumar Garg imposed the fine after the police failed to comply with a previous order in which he had directed the investigating officer IO to supply a copy of an e-challan to one of the accused and sought an adjournment to supply itThe judge said Under the circumstances request for an adjournment for compliance of order dated April 12 2021 is hereby allowed subject to cost of Rs 5000 to be deposited by Delhi Police in the Prime Minister National Relief Fund In his September 25 order the judge added this court is not oblivious of the fact that burden of this cost shall fall on public exchequer and hence I deem it appropriate to direct Commissioner of Police Delhi to conduct an inquiry and to order deduction of aforesaid cost from the salary of the responsible officer The judge noted that the special public prosecutors SPPs and IOs do not appear in the cases on the dates fixed and when they appear after prodding it is without inspection of the file and then seeks adjournment in a very casual manner He said that the conduct of the police as well as the prosecutor has already been brought to the notice of senior police officers including the Commissioner of Police however they have failed to ensure that such incidents do not take place anymore The court was dealing with a case wherein the IO was directed to supply a copy of the e-challan to the accused named Komal Mishra in compliance with an order dated April 12 2021However the IO informed the court that the copy of the e-challan has not yet been supplied to the accused as he was not aware of the court orderPTI AAK RKS RKS