Hearing a case related to the 2020 north-east Delhi riots, a court here recently directed the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) of a particular area to “take immediate remedial action” on an unverified video against an accused booked for arson.
The direction from Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat of Karkardooma Court came last week while hearing a matter related to the burning of some shops and a place of worship.
According to the police, the incident took place on February 25, 2020 and the accused were identified as Rahul Kumar, Suraj, Yogender Singh and Naresh.
They have been accused of being part of a riotous mob and booked under various sections of the IPC as well as Section 3 of the Delhi Prevention of Defacement of Public Property Act, 2007.
The judge took note of the fact that there was a public witness who had identified Mr. Kumar, while there was CCTV footage regarding Mr. Suraj and Mr. Singh. Besides, there was a video against Mr. Naresh.
“..... however, when the video was sent to CFSL (Central Forensic Science Laboratory), the report was received stating that the DVD was found inaccessible in video analyst system and, hence, no examination was carried out. The FSL report was filed by way of supplementary charge-sheet,” the court added.
It further said there is no other witness to identify if Mr. Naresh is involved in this case and it is inexplicable as to how the incriminating video, when sent to the FSL, was found to be inaccessible.
The court reprimanded the police and said that even if the video was inaccessible, it was the duty of the investigating (IO), station house officer and assistant commissioner of police that they should have again sent the correct and accessible video to lab for opinion and filed the same.
“Instead, the IO has filed the supplementary chargesheet along with FSL report of inaccessible video as stated above. Thereafter, it asked the court to order on charge based on available record itself. It becomes difficult for the court, based upon an unverified DVD as per the FSL report to frame charges against the accused Naresh,” the court added.
The order also reads that if the video, against the accused, exists and it is verified by the FSL, it can inculpate the accused. It added that discharging the accused at this stage without the FSL report will hurt the conscious of this court, particularly, given the nature of case of burning of a religious place.
“Moreover, the origin of video is not disclosed,” the court said, directing the DCP to take immediate remedial action in the matter. The case has been posted for hearing on June 7.
