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Delhi violence: CPI(M) raises questions over choice of officers to head SITs

Last Updated 28 February 2020, 12:57 IST

Questions have been raised over the choice of police officials leading the two Special Investigation Teams (SITs) of Delhi Police to investigate communal riots in north-east Delhi on Friday. The CPI(M) claimed that the role of the officers in the handling of cases related to anti-CAA protests and violence in Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Millia University were "questionable".

Questioning the role of police in handling the communal riots in north-east Delhi, the party also expressed "strong disapproval" over the manner in which the Centre was dealing with the communal violence.

The party Polit Bureau took "particular note" on the composition of the two special investigation teams for probing the communal violence. Delhi Police on Thursday transferred the cases related to riots to the Crime Branch, which set up two SITs under Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCPs) Joy Tirkey and Rajesh Deo.

"Each one is led by officers of the rank of the Deputy Commissioner and both of them have played a questionable role in handling the Shaheen Bagh, JNU and Jamia violence earlier where one of them had been actually indicted by the Election Commission," a statement said.

Deo was barred from poll duty by the Election Commission during Delhi Assembly elections last month after he held a press conference linking Kapil Gujjar, who opened fire in Shaheen Bagh on February 1, with AAP.

Tirkey also held a press conference on the violence by masked men in JNU in early January in which he blamed four Left students' organisations for incidents that led to the attack while omitting reference to ABVP despite two from it figured in the list of nine students who were suspects.

The party also said the role of Delhi Police in pre-empting the violence was "highly questionable" and claimed there was an "attempt now is to whitewash" the role of the perpetrators.

"National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has made a shocking statement while talking to victims of violence that 'whatever happened has happened' (jo hua so hua). The same approach was evident in the unseemly developments in the Delhi High Court where the Delhi police categorically refused to indict those who have given public speeches to incite communal polarisation," it said.

It said the need of the hour was to create confidence among the people and the post violence trauma that people have to cope with in north-east Delhi and the sense of insecurity elsewhere.

"Instead of doing this, if the so-called investigation is used to whitewash the role of the perpetrators and selectively handout clean chits, it will invariably lead to further widening of the chasm," it said adding a judicial probe by a Supreme Court judge or a Supreme Court-monitored enquiry is "imperative to dispel doubts about any partisan approach" as the role of police is under scanner.

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(Published 28 February 2020, 12:57 IST)

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