’20 Delhi riots death: Court summons two cops accused of assaulting victim

A Delhi court summoned two police officers charged in the 2020 death of Faizan, who was allegedly beaten and forced to sing the national anthem during riots.

NEW DELHI

The order to appear on February 24, the next date of hearing, was passed by additional chief judicial magistrate Mayank Goel of the Rouse Avenue Courts. (Shutterstock)

A Delhi court on Wednesday summoned two Delhi Police officers chargesheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a case of the death of a man, identified as Faizan, who was allegedly beaten by policemen and forced to sing the national anthem during the Northeast Delhi riots of 2020.

The order to appear on February 24, the next date of hearing, was passed by additional chief judicial magistrate Mayank Goel of the Rouse Avenue Courts.

The court noted that the CBI filed a charge sheet in the case on January 5 after collecting the relevant evidence, and that there was sufficient material on record to take cognisance of the commission of the offences. In the charge sheet, Delhi Police head constable Ravinder Kumar and constable Pawan Yadav were charged under sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 304(II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) read with section 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Initially, the CBI had lodged a case on August 6, 2020 under IPC sections 302 (murder), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon) and 149 (every member or unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object).

Faizan, 23, who worked as a butcher at the Ghazipur Mandi, was allegedly thrashed by a group of police personnel at the 66-foot Road in northeast Delhi’s Kardampuri and was forcibly made to sing the national anthem on February 24, 2020.

According to Faizan’s mother, Kismatun, he was forcefully and illegally detained at the Jyoti Nagar police station and did not receive adequate medical treatment, despite being taken to the GTB Hospital. He was released from the police station a day later in an injured condition and succumbed to his injuries on the intervening night of February 26 and February 27 at the Lok Nayak Hospital, she alleged.

Kismatun had approached the police and filed a complaint, following which an FIR under IPC sections pertaining to murder and rioting was lodged at Bhajanpura police station against unknown persons on February 28.

The investigation was subsequently transferred to a special investigation team (SIT) of the Delhi Police’s Crime Branch. However, Kismatun, through senior advocate Vrinda Grover and advocate Soutik Banerjee, moved the Delhi High Court, stating that the probe was vitiated and unfair, calling for a fresh SIT to be formed.

On July 23, 2024, a Delhi High Court bench of justice Anup Bhambhani transferred the investigation of the case from the Delhi Police to CBI, acknowledging the lack of progress in the Delhi Police’s probe.

On Wednesday, the court summoned the two accused officers and issued a notice to the investigation officer to file a copy of the charge sheet and accompanying documents for compliance of Section 207 of CrPC/230 BNSS, which pertains to the supply of complete documents to the accused.