Delhi Riots: High Court Questions Delhi Police Over Delayed Probe In Death Of Man Forced To Sing National Anthem

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday questioned the delay in investigating an incident where a man, 23 year old Faizan, was forced to sing the national anthem during the Delhi riots that erupted in the year 2020.

The incident relates to a video that had gone viral wherein Faizan could be seen allegedly being beaten by the police while being forced to sing the national anthem and 'Vande Mataram'.

Justice Mukta Gupta sought a detailed status report in the probe under the signature of the concerned Deputy Commissioner of Police.

While the Court was informed by the Delhi Police that they have interrogated a head constable in the matter, Justice Mukta Gupta orally remarked thus:

"It has been two years, you have been able to just identify some person?"

The Court was dealing with a plea filed by Kismatun, Faizan's mother, seeking a SIT probe into her son's death, who along with four other Muslim men, was seen in the video. Kismatun claims in her plea that the police had illegally detained her son and denied him critical health care as a result of which he succumbed to injuries on February 26, 2020.

During the course of the hearing, the Court also questioned the Police as to why the origin of the video was not traced yet.

The Court was informed by the initial Investigating Officer in the matter, Pankaj Arora, that the Police had identified that the video was made from the phone of a head constable, however, when interrogated, he had denied shooting the video in question.

He also informed the Court that a lie detector test was conducted on the Head Constable which revealed that whatever he was saying was deceptive. He added that the head constable's voice samples were taken and sent to the FSL however, report of the same was awaited.

Advocate Vrinda Grover appearing for the petitioner informed the Court that the CCTV footage and record at the concerned police station was not preserved. On this, the initial IO informed the Court that the cctv cameras in the police station were not working since February 24, 2020.

Stating that the Police must submit details of the time when the CCTV cameras stopped functioning, the Court said thus:

"I want all answers in my status report."

Last year, the Police had told the Court that the CCTV cameras of the police station were not working at the time of the incident due to "some technical fault".

Earlier, the court had directed the police to file an affidavit with information about the CCTV cameras' functioning in the relevant month and about the preservation of relevant documents.

The Police had also told the court that they had failed to establish the identity of the officers in the video footage as they were wearing helmets and did not have name plates.

The matter will now be heard on February 22.