E-Paper
2020 Delhi riots: HC asks police to preserve Jafrabad violence case diary
On December 2, the Delhi high court passed an interim order directing the Delhi Police to preserve the diaries related to the Jafrabad violence during the riots
The Delhi high court on Monday directed police to preserve the case diary related to the Jafrabad violence during the February 2020 Delhi riots, which resulted in one death.
A bench of Justice Ravinder Dudeja issued the direction while rejecting the petitioner Devangana Kalita’s plea seeking its reconstruction. “The petition is partly allowed. As far as the request for preservation is concerned, the interim order (dated December 2) is made absolute. So far as reconstruction of police diary is concerned, the same is rejected,” Justice Dudeja said, pronouncing the verdict, a detailed copy of which is awaited.
The court passed the order on Kalita’s plea challenging a city court’s November 6 order refusing to entertain the plea. Kalita and student activist Natasha Narwal had accused the Delhi Police of tampering with and ante-dating witness statements that were part of the case diary.
Judicial magistrate first class Udbhav Kumar Jain had held that though there were merits in the submissions, it could not go into the truthfulness and veracity of the allegations “at this stage.”
On December 2, the high court passed an interim order directing the Delhi Police to preserve the diaries.
The case stems from a case registered on February 26, 2020, alleging that Kalita, Narwal, and others, including Umar Khalid and Gulfisha Fatima, conspired to incite unrest in Jafrabad under the pretence of peaceful protests.
Kalita was granted bail in the case in September 2020. The Supreme Court upheld the decision on June 18, 2021.
