On Monday, in a major relief to Delhi Law Minister and BJP leader Kapil Mishra, a Delhi sessions court set aside a Magistrate court’s direction ordering a probe into his alleged involvement in the 2020 North-East Delhi riots. The order was passed by Special Judge (PC Act) Dig Vinay Singh of the Rouse Avenue Courts, who quashed the April 1 order of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Vaibhav Chaurasiya, which had directed the Delhi Police to investigate Mishra’s purported role in the communal violence.
The Magistrate’s order had stemmed from a plea filed by Mohammad Ilyas, who sought registration of an FIR against Mishra, alleging that he had personally witnessed the BJP leader participating in the riots at North-East Delhi, along with others, by blocking roads and damaging vendors’ carts. The complainant further alleged that a senior police officer was present at the spot alongside Mishra during the incident.
While passing the now-quashed order, Magistrate Chaurasiya had raised serious doubts over the police investigation into the alleged conspiracy behind the riots. His order questioned the reasoning adopted by the investigating agency, observing that the police theory appeared to rest on “questionable assumptions, guesswork and interpretations.”
The Magistrate had remarked, “Once these flaws are outlined, therefore the theory goes off and so does the lens with which prosecution seeks to interpret the facts.” He had further commented that several conclusions drawn by the police, including the claim that “women were put in front of the anti-CAA protests so that the police would practise restraint and mass-scale violence could be executed”, could be “interpreted otherwise.”
Following the Magistrate’s order, both Mishra and the Delhi Police approached the Sessions Court challenging the directions for a further probe. The sessions court had initially stayed the Magistrate’s order on April 9, pending detailed examination.
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