A city court has directed Delhi Police Commissioner Satish Golchha to initiate action against officers responsible for “serious lapses”, including tampering of evidence, in the investigation of a 2020 riots case. In his order dated January 31, Karkardooma Court Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh acquitted six people – Prem Prakash, Ishu Gupta, Rajkumar, Amit, Rahul and Surendra Singh – of criminal conspiracy, rioting, destroying property with explosives and other charges, noting that if the police had conducted a fair investigation the rights of the accused would not have been “bulldozed and destroyed”.

In its charge sheet, the police had accused six people of being part of a mob that set fire to several shops and houses near the Azizia Mosque in New Osmanpur in north-east Delhi on February 25, 2020. More than 50 people were killed and many injured in the communal violence that broke out in February 2020.

‘Tampering with impunity’ The court said, “I must find that the audacity and impunity with which the records were tampered with reflects the complete breakdown of the supervisory machinery as the fabricated charge sheet was put forward by the supervisory officers, i. e. the then SHO and ACP.

” It directed the police chief to take action to “prevent the recurrence of such outrages”. The court described the prosecution’s case as “fabricated” and said that eyewitness statements were “manipulated and fabricated” and tampered with. With regard to the CCTV footage presented by the prosecution as evidence against Mr Prakash, the Additional Sessions Judge said, “When the video files in the pen drive were played, there was only a black screen.

the files were blank. I fail to understand by what divine intervention the IO [investigating officer] of the case came to know that Prem Prakash was involved in this riot. ” “Therefore, I find that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove its case against the accused, and all the accused have been acquitted of all charges leveled against them,” he said.