HC adjourns hearing till March 26 in batch of pleas related to Delhi riots

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday adjourned the hearing in a batch of petitions seeking an independent probe into the north-east Delhi riots last year till March 26.

While one of the parties was seeking a National Investigation Agency probe to unearth "anti-national" forces behind the riots in February, another party has called for a Special Investigation Team probe into the riots.

Communal clashes broke out in north-east Delhi in February last year following clashes between the anti-CAA supporters and protesters, which left at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.

A Division Bench headed by Chief Justice DN Patel adjourned the matter and listed it for March 26.

During the hearing on Thursday, the counsel for Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind, which has sought an SIT probe under a retired High Court or Supreme Court judge, submitted that the petition was moved because of the "inaction of the police" and went on to rely on a fact-finding report published by the Delhi Minorities Commission to make her case for taking the probe away from the Delhi Police, according to legal news website Bar & Bench.

The legal news website went on to report that the court sought the reply of the Delhi Police in a petition by activist Rahul Roy be put on record and while Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves and one other petitioner submitted that they had finished pleadings, the petitioner-in-person seeking the NIA probe filed a rejoinder.

The court asked the petitioner to provide a copy of the same to the respondents

and the government, following which replies are expected to be filed.

One of the other petitions in this batch of please has also sought a direction to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT), asking that an FIR be registered against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Manish Sisodia, Amanatullah Khan, Waris Pathan, Akbaruddin Owaisi and Mehmood Pracha for purported hate speeches.