Judge Who Pulled Up Delhi Police For ‘Callous’ Probe In Feb 2020 Riots Transferred

The judge has been disapproving the investigation conducted by the Delhi Police in some of the riots cases and has pulled them up at times for a "callous and farcical" probe and even imposed a fine

At least 53 people had died and hundreds were injured in clashes in the national capital that occurred in Februrary 2020

New Delhi: Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Vinod Yadav, who had been hearing cases related to the February 2020 Delhi riots at the Karkardooma District Courts, has been transferred to New Delhi district's Rouse Avenue Court as Special Judge (PC Act) (CBI). Yadav will replace Judge Virender Bhatt, who will now be holding the post of ASJ in Karkardooma court.

Hearing the riots cases, the trial had been critical of the Delhi Police and had observed that the police's failure to conduct a proper investigation will torment "sentinels of democracy".

According to news agency PTI, the public notice issued by the Delhi High Court that listed names of the judges transferred said: "Hon'ble the Chief Justice and Hon'ble Judges of this Court have been pleased to make the following postings/transfers in the Delhi Higher Judicial Service with immediate effect."

The transfer comes within a day of Yadav coming down heavily on the Delhi Police, saying "Police witnesses are lying on oath" and giving contradictory statements.

Yadav observations were made at the hearing of a northeast Delhi riots case after one policeman identified three alleged rioters but another said that they could not be identified during the investigation. "This is a very sorry state of affairs," Yadav had said and sought a report from the Deputy Commissioner of Police (northeast) in this regard.

The judge has been disapproving the investigation conducted by the Delhi Police in some of the riots cases and has pulled them up at times for a "callous and farcical" probe and even imposed a fine, which was later challenged in the high court.

In the last few months, he had repeatedly sought the intervention of Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana to monitor the probe and take action against the erring police officers.

He also came down heavily on the police, saying that their failure to conduct a proper investigation will torment the "sentinels of democracy" when history will look back at the worst communal riots in the city since partition.

In another case, Yadav had said that the standard of investigation in a large number of 2020 northeast riots cases is "very poor".  Apart from this he objected to the "wrongly-clubbed FIRs" and recently ordered the separation of a trial based on their religion.

Last year, the Delhi High Court had designated two sessions and two magisterial courts for the trial of communal violence cases registered in northeast and Shahdara districts of the national capital. Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi in February 2020, after violence between the Citizenship (Amendment) Act supporters and its protesters spiraled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and over 700 injured.

(With PTI inputs)