New Delhi: A Delhi court Monday pulled up the Delhi Police for its “casual attitude” in probing the case against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kapil Mishra, directing its commissioner to take notice of the “casual attitude” of the investigating agencies.
The court was hearing a case against Mishra, now a minister in the Delhi government, in relation to remarks made during the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections on X. He called the Muslim-dominated area of Shaheen Bagh “mini Pakistan” and alleged that the polls would be a contest between India and Pakistan in violation of the moral code of conduct. He was charged with promoting communal enmity.
Taking note of the fact that no one was present on behalf of the investigating agency to follow up on the previous direction to conduct further investigation in this case, the court said it had no option but to bring this “state of affairs” to the Delhi Police commissioner’s notice,
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Vaibhav Chaurasia said, “No one is present on behalf of the Investigating Agency to follow up the directions of further investigation and before any stringent remarks could be made upon the casual attitude of the Investigating Agency qua the directions of this Court, this Court is constrained to bring it to the notice of Worthy Commissioner of Police, Delhi Police with respect to the state of affairs and non-adequate explanation on the part of the Investigating Agency.”
What the court said
Mishra was accused under Section 125 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which says, “Any person who in connection with an election under this Act promotes or attempts to promote on grounds of religion, race, caste, community or language, feelings of enmity or hatred, between different classes of the citizens of India shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.”
On 4 March 2024, the court directed further investigation in the case. Following this, it passed several orders between 20 March 2024 and 8 April this year for the collection of evidence from the X handle of the accused. However, this was not completed.
On Monday, the court noted that, at the previous hearing on 8 April, it was given an assurance by way of a district commissioner of police report that said efforts were being made to obtain reports from the social media platform.
Despite this, the court noted that no one from the investigating agency had appeared before it or followed upon the directions given by the court in its previous orders, or given an adequate explanation for doing so.
“It is also suggested that if the aid of any other Ministry is required, this Court is of the opinion that the Delhi Police is enough equipped and will not be shy to take resort to,” the court said.
The court again directed Delhi Police to “at least procure the relevant material which must be the part of the charge-sheet” since the reasonable time limit had already been granted, and further noted that the issue had been pending for nearly a year.
“In the case the Delhi Police fails to investigate or there is any impediment, same be reported to this Court,” it ruled.
Listing the case for further hearing on 7 July, the court also directed the joint commissioner, northern range, to file a status report before the bench.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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