Police denied the role of the BJP leader in the riots and blamed activists including Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Meeran Haider, Khalid Saifi and others for the violence
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — A Delhi court has ordered the registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against the newly-elected minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kapil Mishra and others to investigate their role in the 2020 riots in the northeast region of the national capital.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Vaibhav Chaurasia found “prime facie” evidence of a cognisable offence, requiring a probe. It is clear that Mishra was in the area at the time of the alleged offence… further probe is required,” the judge said.
The judge was hearing arguments on a plea filed by a Yamuna Vihar resident Mohammad Ilyas, seeking registration of the FIR. The plea was opposed by Delhi Police, claiming Mishra had no role in the riots, a LiveLaw report said.
The court said the material put forth by the prosecution revealed that Mishra was present in the area in question and that “all the things were corroborating”.
The complainant had also sought FIR against the then Station House Officer (SHO) of Dayalpur police station and five others, including BJP MLA Mohan Singh Bisht and former party legislator Jagdish Pradhan along with Mishra.
The communal violence that rocked Northeast Delhi in the last week of February 2020 took the lives of 53 people, a majority of them Muslims. Besides, at least 700 people sustained grievous injuries and caused infrastructural damage to the tune of crores of rupees.
The day violence broke out, Mishra was present in the area and made provocative statements threatening to vacate anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) protesters.
Delhi Police denied the role of Mishra in the riots and blamed activists including Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Meeran Haider, Khalid Saifi and others for the violence. However, a 10-member fact-finding team formed by the Delhi Minorities Commission maintained that the violence was “planned and targeted” and held Mishra responsible.
The report said that “violence started in different pockets almost immediately after the short speech of Shri Kapil Mishra on 23 February 2020 at Maujpur in which he openly called for forcefully removing the protestors from Jafrabad in Northeast Delhi.”
Complainant Ilyas, represented in court by Mehmood Pracha, had said in his complaint that he saw Mishra and others blocking a road in the Kardampuri area and destroying several vendors’ carts. He had also noted that the then Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Northeast Delhi, was standing next to Mishra along with other police personnel, and warning the protestors to vacate the area or face consequences.
The complainant had also stated that he saw the then Dayalpur SHO, along with BJP leaders Pradhan and Bisht, vandalising mosques across the capital’s northeast region.
