Delhi riots 2020: Why many police cases are falling apart

Five years after dangerous religious riots swept through Delhi, India’s money, there is no immediate legal resolution in view for the affected citizens.

More than 80 % of the scenarios involving crime in which judges ‘ judgments have resulted in indictments or releases have been found by a BBC Hindi research.

More than 50 people, mostly Muslims, were killed after clashes broke out between Hindus and Muslims over a controversial citizenship law in February 2020. The violence – the deadliest the city had seen in decades – stretched on for days, with hundreds of homes and shops set on fire by violent mobs.

The BBC had earlier reported on incidents of police brutality and complicity during the riots. The police have denied any wrongdoing and in their investigation, alleged that the violence was “pre-planned” as a part of a larger conspiracy to “threaten India’s unity” by the people who were protesting against the law.

They registered 758 cases in connection with the investigation and arrested more than 2,000 people. This included 18 student leaders and activists who were arrested in a case that came to be known as the “main conspiracy case”. They were charged under a draconian anti-terror law that makes it nearly impossible to get bail. Only six of them have been released in five years, and some like activist Umar Khalid are still in jail, waiting for a trial to begin.

BBC Hindi examined the status of all the 758 cases filed in relation to the riots and analysed the 126 cases in which the Karkardooma court in Delhi had given decisions.

More than 80 % of these 126 cases resulted in indictments or discharges as witnesses turned angry, or did not support the lawyer’s situation. Just 20 of these instances saw convictions.

An accused is discharged under Indian laws when a situation is adjourned without a test because there isn’t enough evidence to support the prosecution. Following a thorough trial, the court finds the accused no innocent. An acquittal is this.

In 62 of the 758 circumstances that were filed on costs related to death, there was only one faith and four indictments, data accessed by the BBC through India’s Right to Information rules shows.

A thorough examination of the 126 orders revealed that the Delhi police heavily relied on the court in dozens of scenarios for errors in studies. In some cases, it criticised the officers for filing “predetermined chargesheets” that “falsely implicated” the accused.

In most of the 126 situations, police officers were presented as testimony to the activities. But for several reasons, the jury did not find their stories reliable.

Judges have pointed out inconsistencies in the police statements, delays in identification of the accused by the police and, in some instances, cast doubts over whether policemen were even present when the violence broke out.

In two directions, the prosecutor said that he could not “restrain” himself from saying that when past looked up at the protests, the “failure of the investigating agency to do a proper analysis” do” torture the sentinels of democracy”. The jury was hearing cases brought against three males on suspicion of fire and stealing, but the judge determined that they had been detained without any “real or productive investigation.”

The Delhi authorities did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment. In a statement filed next April, the officers had told the judge that all studies were carried out in a” reliable, fair and impartial” method.

Stories from some of the accused and even the judge’s personal studies, however, raise concerns about the investigation.

Shadab Alam, who spent 80 days in jail, says he does not forget the terror of the protests.

He had found safety on a medication store’s rooftop terrace, where he and a dozen others shared a few clothes.

The officers had just arrived at the store hours earlier and instructed them to stop because of continuing arson.

” Suddenly, they]the police ] came again and took a few of us into their van”, he told the BBC.

When he asked the authorities why he was being taken, he said, they accused him of participating in violence.

They called us our titles and physically abused us. Almost all of us arrested were Muslims”, Mr Alam said. He continued, adding that he had filed a medical report that found three injury before the court.

According to the police’s official document, Mr. Alam and ten other Muslims have been accused of destroying a store. However, the jury discharged each of them prior to the start of the trial.

In its observations, the jury criticised the police investigation saying that the defendant’s statements could have been “artificially organized”, and that “in all probabilities” the factory was burnt by a “mob of persons from the Hindu group”.

Despite being present at the time the incident occurred, the police continued to pursue the case in that manner.

Mr. Alam had to wait four years before the case was set to be resolved.

” All this happened during Covid-19 pandemic. There was a lockdown. We were in a state of frenzy”, said Dilshad Ali, Alam’s father.

” In the end, nothing was proved. However, we had to put in a lot of time and money to prove our innocence.

He claimed that the family desired financial gain as a result of their losses. He continued,” If the police made a false case against my son, then action should be taken against them.”

In another case, Sandip Bhati was cleared of the charge of dragging and beating a Muslim man during the riots.

Two videos that Mr. Bhati was the target of were submitted by the police. However, his attorney claimed in court that the police had used an incomplete clip to frame his client.

Mr. Bhati is seen rescuing the Muslim man in the full video in the video, which the BBC has verified, as opposed to beating him up.

In its order in January, the court ruled that the police “manipulated” the video to “frame” Mr Bhati instead of tracing the “actual culprits”.

Additionally, it requested that the Delhi police commissioner take appropriate legal action against the case’s investigating officer. BBC Hindi was questioned by the police about whether this had been done.

Mr Bhati, who spent four months in prison, refused to comment, saying he did not wish to discuss his “ordeal”.

Former Supreme Court judge Madan Lokur said that the prosecution and police” should sit down and examine what they have accomplished in five years” given the number of acquittals.

He added that “accountability needs to be fixed on the prosecution as well if the arrest is determined to be unnecessary or illegal.”

If someone is imprisoned because they have the authority to do so or because they want to do so, they shouldn’t be able to escape if it is determined that it is unnecessary or illegal, he continued.

Many of those detained are still squabbling in jail awaiting a trial despite some cases going through the courts.

Gulfisha Fatima, a 33-year-old PhD aspirant, is among 12 activists who are still in jail on charges of being” conspirators” of the riots.

Her family claims that she received bail in each of the three other police cases that were filed against her. However, she is still facing incarceration in a fourth case under the stringent anti-terror law, UAPA, which places exceptionally difficult conditions on bail.

Her father, Syed Tasneef Hussain, told the BBC,” We hope she finally comes out since she’s been in jail every hearing.”

After months of hearing the bail plea in Ms. Fatima’s case, the Delhi High Court judge was appointed in 2023, and the case is now being heard once more.

” Sometimes I wonder if I’ll be able to see her or if I’ll pass away before that,” said Mr. Hussain.

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