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Delhi's Karkardooma Court has recently expressed its strong displeasure over the investigation based on hearsay evidence in the North East Delhi riot case.
The court has referred the matter to the Delhi Police Commissioner to initiate an inquiry at the department level against Investigation Officers (IO) who wasted its time. This case pertains to the FIR lodged at Gokul Puri police station in 2020. Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Pulastya Pramachala said, "It is very painful that previous IOs literally wasted the time of this court, by filing the report of investigation based on hearsay evidence." "Therefore, the matter is referred to the learned Commissioner of Police to initiate an inquiry at the level of the department with respect to the conduct of previous IOs, in making an investigation in this case and buying time from the court in the name of coming up with a concrete report of investigation till date," the judge said in an order passed on October 19. The court also said that it is also expected that the concerned officials must be sensitized to at least not waste the court's time on false pretexts. The court has directed to send a copy of the order to the commissioner. The court was dealing with an application moved by the present IO seeking permission to conduct further investigation in a riot case. The judge pointed out, "If one goes through the orders passed in this case at least since 07.09.2022 till date, it will be apparent that how time was bought on behalf of previous IOs to come up with a concrete report of investigation." The court further pointed out that a supplementary chargesheet was also filed, but the quality of that investigation report is well reflected in the above-mentioned application moved by IO/SI Arvind Verma. The IO moved an application seeking permission to conduct further investigation to get information on the exact time and date of each incident clubbed for investigation in this case and being prosecuted in this case. He also submitted that till now the time of alleged incidents as reported in previous chargesheets, are based on the statement of complainants/witnesses, who had not seen the incidents themselves and who referred to such timing on the basis of getting such informationfrom another person. Special PP also submitted that this information was thus, based on hearsay evidence and therefore, there is a need to examine those complainants and witnesses further in order to get information about those persons, who had seen the incidents and who could tell the actual time of each incident. The court on 19.01.2023 passed a direction to file a description of evidence to show the date and time of each incident being prosecuted in this case. Thereafter, IO filed the present application. He also sought one to one and half months' time to complete further investigation. The court listed the matter on December 13, 2023, for a report of further investigation. On the same date, the court would expect an acknowledgement from the office of the learned Commissioner of Police as well, in respect of receipt of the above-mentioned observations, the court directed. (ANI)
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