Court asks Delhi top cop to tell IOs to attend proceedings during consideration of charges

New Delhi: A court here recently asked Delhi Police commissioner Sanjay Arora to instruct all investigating officers in cases related to the 2020 North East Delhi riots to compulsorily attend the proceedings at the stage of consideration of charges.

The additional sessions judge sought mandatory presence of IOs for assisting the court.

Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala while hearing a case registered by Dayalpur police station against around 47 accused persons noted the absence of the police official concerned who had conducted the actual investigation.

“...Matter is referred to the Commissioner of Police to pass necessary directions in this regard for all the actual IOs of such cases to attend the court at the stage of consideration on charge mandatorily,” the judge said, directing a copy of the order to be sent to the top officer.

During the proceedings, the judge noted a request was received from Inspector Shiv Charan (IO of the case) for allowing Sub-Inspector Rajeev from Dayalpur police station to attend the court since he was on night duty the previous day. However, no official was present during the proceedings.

“As far as assistance to the court is concerned, the same cannot be effectively given by SI Rajeev because he did not make any investigation in this case as such. The assistance can be given by only those IOs who had done some sort of investigation at one or another point in time,” the judge said.

ASJ Pramachala said, especially at the stage of consideration on the point of charge, the actual IOs should attend the proceedings in order to assist the court and to answer the questions. It would be a waste of time to pass directions for the appearance of actual IO’s in each case separately, the judge said. The court has posted the matter for further proceedings on April 29.