Come February 8, the Delhi High Court will start hearing a bunch of petitions seeking registration of first information reports (FIRs) against political leaders for their role in instigating the riots that rocked the national capital in February 2020.
The petitions further sought probe by a Special Investigating Team (SIT) into the role of the Delhi Police in dealing with the riots, which led to death of more than 50 people.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani will hear the matters on a day-to-day basis from Tuesday.
The move follows the Supreme Court’s December order, directing the Delhi High Court to deal with these matters as expeditiously as possible, preferably within three months.
On Friday, the Bench noted that two months have already passed since the Supreme Court direction and even though it was euphemistically put, the apex court’s “wish is their command”.
The judges noted that while most of the prayers in the petitions sought various reliefs related to the northeast Delhi riots, some concerned the violence in Jamia Millia Islamia as well.
Therefore, the prayers have to be collated, so that the Court can deal with these based on issues, the bench said.
There are half a dozen petitions before the Delhi High Court related to the February 2020 riots. Most of these have sought registration of FIR against BJP leaders Kapil Mishra, Anurag Thakur and Pravesh Sahib Singh Verma and an SIT investigation into the Delhi Police’s role in the violence.
However, the plea by activist Ajay Gautam seeks an NIA inquiry into the genesis of the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)/National Register of Citizen (NRC), as well as the alleged funding behind them.
Gautam sought registration of FIRs against leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Salman Khurshid, Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Asaduddin Owaisi and several others for their alleged role in the riots.