'Over 250 chargesheet filed; those raising questions on probe should go to court'

new delhi: Facing widespread criticism over the way it is conducting the investigation into the north-east Delhi riots, the Delhi Police on Sunday said, in a statement, that they had filed over 250 chargesheet in the riots-related cases so far and arrested more than 1,500 people without any kind of bias based on evidence they had gathered.

According to Delhi Police, so far, police have arrested 1,575 persons in the 751 riots cases. Over 250 chargesheet have been filed in the riots related cases in which 1,153 accused (571 Hindus and 582 Muslims) have been charge-sheeted. All these cases are pending before the Special Courts constituted for the trial.

"As far as the investigation is concerned, Delhi Police has meticulously carried out an investigation in the most professional manner," police said. After collecting and collating all evidence, the investigation has been finalised in most of the important cases and the chargesheet have been submitted in the court for trial.

The statement from the police comes in the wake of reports that it had "named" activists and academics like CPM leader Sitaram Yechury, Yogender Yadav and eminent economist Jayati Ghosh in one of the chargesheet. However, police later clarified that they have not been named as "accused".

Interestingly, many have lashed out at the Delhi Police for its probe in the riots cases on social media and otherwise. In fact, former Mumbai Police Commissioner Julio Ribeiro has also written to SN Shrivastava here seeking a 'course correction' of sorts for the probe.

Further, the police here have said, "Those raising questions may instead take it up in the court of law at the appropriate time as per established judicial

process." The police added that "various interest groups" were using social media to raise questions against them because they were "motivated".

"Delhi Police is investigating into the role of all such individuals who took part in the riot and were part of the larger conspiracy in organizing violence in the north-east Delhi and inciting communal passion and hatred amongst communities," Delhi Police press statement read.