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Nearly five years after the suspicious death of a 23-year-old auto driver, Vivek Kumar, a Delhi court has ordered the registration of an FIR, pulling up the police for failing to act earlier.
The direction came on a plea filed by the victim's father, Rameshwar Dayal, who had approached the court after his repeated complaints to the New Ashok Nagar police yielded no results. Advocate Amresh Anand represented Dayal. Vivek Kumar was last seen on November 1, 2020, after being called by his auto-rickshaw owner, Anil. His body was later recovered from a Delhi Jal Board sewer treatment plant at Kondli, with the postmortem attributing the cause of death to asphyxia due to drowning. Despite CCTV footage showing a scuffle involving the deceased, the police failed to register a case, maintaining there was "no foul play." Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Mayank Goel, while referring to the Supreme Court's ruling in Lalita Kumari v. Govt. of U.P. (2014), held that the facts clearly disclosed a cognizable offence of murder. The court observed that the investigating officers filed reports with a "predetermined notion" and ignored the complainant's evidence. In his order, the judge not only directed the SHO concerned to register an FIR without delay but also instructed the Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) to sensitise all ACPs and SHOs to ensure prompt FIR registration in cases involving human loss. With this order, an FIR will finally be lodged in the case--almost five years after Vivek Kumar's death. The matter has been listed for further proceedings on September 25, 2025. (ANI)
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