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HC seeks status report from cops, issues notice to UP authorities over post-mortem

HC seeks status report from cops, issues notice to UP authorities over post-mortem
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New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought a status report from the Delhi Police in a matter related to the death of a 25-year-old farmer Navreet Singh on January 26 during the farmers' tractor rally here at ITO.

The Delhi Police told the court that it has registered a "generic FIR" in the case which is lodged at the IP Estate Police Station and investigation into it is currently ongoing.

The court further asked the Delhi Police to preserve all material documents like CCTV footage and postmortem, among others, which it has seized in order to provide it to the petitioner as per his petition.

A single-judge bench of Justice Yogesh Khanna, who was hearing a plea moved by the deceased's 65-year-old grandfather seeking a court-monitored SIT probe into the death of his grandson, also issued notice to the Chief Medical Officer of the District Hospital in Rampur in Uttar Pradesh and the Station House Officer (SHO) of Bilaspur Police Station and fixed the matter for hearing on February 26.

During the hearing, petitioner Hardeep Singh, represented by Senior Advocate Vrinda Grover, alleged that the deceased sustained "lacerated wounds" consistent with bullet injuries and went on to cite several news reports where eyewitnesses and both national and international forensic experts support the claim of Navreet being shot.

The counsel claimed that there are several CCTV cameras at the Andhra Education Society but on the evening of January 26, police came and took the DVR of the CCTV. "No footage is shown to the farmers... selective footage is released from a distance rather than from a site near the incident," she argued.

The counsel further sought raw CCTV footage in and around the place of incident, copy of the X-ray report of the deceased and video of his postmortem as part of the plea.

On this, Delhi Police, represented by Delhi government standing counsel (criminal) Rahul Mehra, after seeking instructions, said that a "generic FIR" in connection with the case has been lodged at the IP Estate Police Station and all the matters are being looked into.

He further submitted that "there is no difficulty" in providing the petitioner with the documents as they have already been seized by the Delhi Police and will be preserved accordingly.

"After the incident, the police does nothing and abandon the scene of crime…they don't cordon off the area…", Grover submitted.

"In hours following the incident, the Delhi Police was conspicuous in its absence from the site...what has caused those injuries?... No inquest was conducted, no FIR was registered, police abandoned everything," she added.

They instead arrived at a "hastily prejudged assertion" with an "unsubstantiated claim" that the farmer died after his tractor toppled over, Grover told the court.

"Police not only acted in haste but it wants to suppress something... even if the tractor overturned after running into the barricades, no post-mortem was done, no inquest proceeding was done, there is not a single eyewitness... so, on what basis has police arrived at their conclusion?", Grover asked.

She said that her client had a right to know how his grandson died and is seeking a fair, independent and time-bound investigation. "Delhi Police at every step of the way inspired not a shred of confidence in me," she argued.

Meanwhile, Editor-in-Chief of The Wire, Siddharth Varadarajan and a reporter of the news portal were granted interim protection from arrest by a Rampur court, in a case registered by the UP Police over their reports sharing the family's allegations of Navreet having been allegedly shot by police.

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