Delhi HC seeks police stand on 2020 riots case diary

The Delhi high court on Thursday refused to immediately direct the Delhi Police to preserve and reconstruct the case diary pertaining to the Jafrabad violence that had erupted during the February 2020 Delhi riots which had resulted in one death.
A bench of justice Jasmeet Singh, however, sought the police’s response in activist Devangana Kalita’s petition, challenging the city court’s November 6 order, and fixed November 25 as the next date of hearing.
On November 6, the city court refused to delve into the allegations of tampering and antedating levied by Kalita and student activist Natasha Narwal against the Delhi Police in the statement of the witnesses, which formed a part of the case diary.
The city court had said that the relief sought raised suspicion on the version of the investigating agency. In its four-page order, judicial magistrate first class Udbhav Kumar Jain had held that though there were merits in the submissions, it could not go into the truthfulness and veracity of the allegations “at this stage.”
In its first information report (FIR), the Delhi Police had alleged that Kalita, along with other activists including Umar Khalid, Natasha Narwal, Gulfisha Fatima had plotted to create unrest in Jafrabad under the guise of peaceful protests.
The Delhi high court had granted bail to Kalita in the Jafrabad violence case in September 2020 as well as in the larger conspiracy case in 2021, which was upheld by the Supreme Court the same year.