Delhi Court Discharges Tahir Hussain's Brother Shah Alam And Two Others In Delhi Riot Case Citing Failure Of Investigating Agency To Conduct Proper Investigation

"When history will look back at the worst communal riots since partition in Delhi, it is the failure of investigating agency to conduct proper investigation by using latest scientific methods, will surely torment the sentinels of democracy," observed a Delhi Court on Thursday while discharging three accused persons in a Delhi Riots case.

Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav discharged three accused including Former AAP Councillor Tahir Hussain's brother Shah Alam, Rashid Saifi and Shadab in FIR 93/2020.

Pulling up the investigating agency, the Court observed that the case appeared to have been solved merely by filing this charge sheet "without any real effort being made to trace out eye witnesses, real accused persons and technical evidence" in the matter.

"This Court cannot permit such cases to meander mindlessly in the corridors of judicial system, sweeping away precious judicial time of this Court when the same is open and shut case," the Court said 

It added:

"The casualty in the matter is pain and agony suffered by complainant/victim, whose case has virtually remained unsolved; callous and indolent investigation; lack of supervision by superior officers of investigation and criminal wastage of the time and money of the tax payer."

The FIR was registered under sec. 147, 148, 149, 427, 380, 454, 436, 435 and 120-B of IPC on the basis of two complaints alleging that a shop was burnt, attacked and looted during the Delhi riots.

While looking at the facts of the case, the Court took note of the fact that the accused persons were neither specifically named in the FIR nor any specific role was assigned to them in the matter. It was also observed that there was no independent eye witness account of the incident available on record. 

"In the North-East District of Delhi, about 750 cases were registered, out of which maximum cases are triable by this Court. This is the sole court dealing with all the matters of riots cases in North-East Delhi. Around 150 cases have been received by this Court for trial after committal. The charges in about 35 cases only have so far been framed . A few matters have been remanded back to the learned MM as no offences triable exclusively by the Court of Sessions were found to be made out. There are a large number of accused persons who have been languishing in jail for the last about 1½ years merely on account of the fact that the trial in their cases are not being initiated. The police seems to be still busy in filing supplementary chargesheets therein. The precious judicial time of this Court is being wasted in giving dates in those cases. A lot of time of this Court is being consumed by the cases like the present one, where there is hardly any investigation carried out by the police," the Court observed.

The Court was also of the view that it cannot permit such cases to "meander mindlessly in the corridors of judicial system, sweeping away precious judicial time" when the same is open and shut case. 

"The sort of investigation conducted in the instant case and the lack of supervision thereof by the superior officers clearly depicts that the investigating agency has merely tried to pull the wool over the Court's eyes and nothing else," the Court added.

Accordingly, the Court discharged the three in the matter.

Title: State v. Shah Alam & Ors.

Click Here To Read Order