No faith in Delhi Police, demand judicial probe into riots: Activists, former bureaucrats write to President Kovind

A day after a Delhi Minorities Commission found fault with Delhi Police in its handling of north-east Delhi riots, a group of activists, writers and former bureaucrats on Friday knocked the doors of Rashtrapati Bhavan seeking an enquiry by a sitting or retired judge of the higher judiciary for a "credible and unbiased" investigation into the February violence.

In a letter to President Ram Nath Kovind, the group said that the ongoing probe by the Delhi Police "does not inspire confidence", saying its probe had "become a fishing and roving expedition aimed at causing a chilling effect" on dissent and protest in the country.

They accused the Delhi Police of being complicit in violence, indulging in custodial torture, taking no action on complaints against BJP leaders like Kapil Mishra and criminalising dissent and protest.

"With serious allegations against several senior police officials of being complicit in the violence or assisting the mobs or standing mutely and watching the violence, there is bound to be a perception that the agency is shielding its own," the letter said.

The group said police have been calling several youth who were part of protests for interrogation and many of them shared that there was an attempt to intimidate them and offer them “deals” in exchange for giving statements against activists and those involved in the protests.

The letter was signed by 72 prominent people, including former bureaucrats Wajahat Habibullah, Vappala Balachandran, Jawahar Sircar, EAS Sarma, K Sujatha Rao, K P Fabian and Julio Ribeiro, academician Jayati Ghosh, and activists Aruna Roy, Anjali Bharadwaj and Nikhil Dey as well as Prashant Bhushan.

"To ensure that justice is done and those who instigated and caused the violence are prosecuted, it is critical that the investigation be free and fair...There are, however, serious questions about the role played by the Delhi Police during the violence, with allegations of the police deliberately not preventing violence and in some places, even being complicit in it," the letter said.

The letter cited instances of police high-handedness, including reports about a video footage where policemen were seen assaulting youth and forcing them to sing the national anthem as well as police personnel indulging in stone-pelting.

It said one Faizan, who was detained after assault and forced to sing the national anthem, was taken into custody and died later but the FIR makes no mention of the "clearly documented video footage of the police assaulting Faizan". No policemen have been named as accused in the case, the letter said.

The group also accused the Delhi Police of pursuing a line of inquiry criminalising the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and portraying them as a conspiracy which resulted in the riots in February, which claimed 55 lives. The letter said the chronology presented in the charge-sheets also criminalises dissent by claiming that speeches criticising the CAA, NPR, NRC led to instigation of violence in Delhi.

The group claimed that the malafides in the police investigation is also apparent from the fact that they have been persistently questioning people that they are calling for the investigation about two groups 'Hum Bharat ke Log' (We, The People of India), which was formed by well known academics, intellectuals and activists to oppose the CAA, and 'Delhi Protests Support Group', which was formed to support the peaceful protests sites by coordinating with cultural artists and public intellectuals.

"A credible and unbiased probe is crucial to ensure public trust...We therefore call upon the Government of India to institute an inquiry into this investigation under the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952, by appointing sitting/retired judge(s) of the higher judiciary. Further, it must be ensured that officers accused of being complicit in the violence are not involved in the investigation by the Delhi Police," the letter said.