Delhi HC quashes petitions for SIT probe into 2020 riots, Jamia violence

The Delhi high court on Monday dismissed petitions seeking first information reports (FIR) against various political leaders, including Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra, Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma, for alleged hate speeches during the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)-National Register of Citizens (NRC) protests that purportedly incited the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots, which claimed over 50 lives.

A bench of justices Vivek Chaudhary and Manoj Jain also rejected the petitions seeking Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the 2019 violence which broke out in the Jamia Milia Islamia university.

“For the reasons detailed in the judgement, the petitions (batch) are dismissed,” the court said while pronouncing the verdict.

A detailed copy of the verdict is awaited.

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The court delivered the verdict filed in 2020, Shaikh Mujtaba, Lawyers Voice, Brinda Karat which also sought prosecution of several opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Manish Sisodia, Asaduddin Owaisi, as well as a retired High Court judge and a court-monitored probe by a SIT into the role of the Delhi Police in the riots.

Last year, the high court in December had questioned the basis of petitions seeking SIT probe into the 2020 Delhi riots on the premise that the Delhi Police’s investigation was unreliable, noting that neither the accused nor the victims had challenged the chargesheet in the past six years and that the plea was instead being advanced by “outsiders.”

On November 21, the high court had said that judicial discipline was stopping it from considering a batch of petitions seeking registration of FIRs against political leaders, as a similar matter was being considered by the Supreme Court.