Rs 5,000 fine on police for not giving chargesheet to accused in riots case

New Delhi: The Delhi Police was fined Rs 5,000 by a Delhi court after it failed to comply with its orders on supplying a copy of the chargesheet to the accused in a case related to the north-east Delhi riots last year. The police has been directed to deposit the fine amount in the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund.

The court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Arun Kumar Garg passed the order, noting that the court is "not oblivious to the fact that burden of the aforesaid cost shall ultimately fall on the public exchequer" and hence directed Commissioner Rakesh Asthana to order an inquiry in the matter and fix responsibility for the fine to be paid.

The matter was pertaining to an earlier direction that mandated the Delhi Police to supply a copy of the chargesheet to the accused. The police failed to comply within the deadline and later supplied it to the accused's lawyer only on October 9.

"It has been repeatedly brought to the notice of senior police officers, up to the rank of DCP (NE), JCP (Eastern Range) and Commissioner of Police, Delhi, that IOs, as well as SHOs in riots cases, are not complying with directions of the Court leading to unnecessary delay in trial/committal of riots cases and they are not even inspecting the file before the NDOH so as to ensure that all directions of the Court are complied with by them in time, however, they have failed to mend their ways," the court noted.

The accused, however, went on to seek an adjournment to go through the chargesheet in light of the delay on the part of the police. The defence said they would need time to scrutinise the chargesheet so that arguments on charges can be presented.