Court pulls up police for ‘wrongly’ clubbing 27 complaints with FIR

A court here on Wednesday came down hard on the Delhi Police for “wrongly and “casually” clubbing as many as 27 complaints of separate incidents of rioting and arson during the 2020 northeast Delhi riots with a pre-existing FIR, and directed a senior police officer to ensure the additional complaints were investigated properly.

Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala’s order came while acquitting three people, who were named as accused in the original FIR with which 27 complaints were clubbed, for the offences of rioting and arson.

Akil Ahmed, Raheesh Khan and Irshad were accused of being part of a rampaging mob that had looted and set ablaze the complainant’s shop in Chandu Nagar on February 24, 2020 during the riots. The judge said the charges were not proved against them beyond reasonable doubt.

While acquitting the three accused in the main case, the court was severely critical of Delhi Police’s action of clubbing 27 complaints with the main FIR and improper and inadequate probe into the additional complaints.

“It is also apparent that there was no logical ground with the IO (Investigating officer) to club those complaints in the present FIR and it appears to have been so done in a very casual manner. Hence, I find that all these complaints are wrongly clubbed in the present FIR in a mechanical manner and were not investigated,” the court said.