New Delhi: A plea seeking action against the Director General of Police, Delhi, for the alleged failure in pursuing a case over the alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Dharam Sansad prompted the Supreme Court to rip the Delhi police.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha urged the Delhi police to make in the record the investigation so far done into the inflammatory speeches made at the Dharam Sansad event in Delhi in December 2021.
The petitioner said that by filing an FIR in May 2022 on the incident that had occurred in December 2021, five months after the incident, the Police had violated the court’s guidelines in the Tehseen Poonawala case on how to deal with such matters.
The petitioner also brought before the court the seriousness of the case related to the incident where the participants in the conference were caught on camera taking oath for violence of a certain kind at the insistence of their leaders.
But the rebuttal from Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj, who appeared for the Delhi police, that the police have not violated any apex court direction is what prompted the CJI to seek what were the police doing in regard to the investigation, besides questioning the delay in registering the FIR.
Advocate Shadan Farasat, appearing for the petitioner, also said that the police neither summoned anyone for integration nor filed a chargesheet, over a case of such sensitivity that called for quick registration of FIR and filing of chargesheet as per the Supreme Court direction.
Meanwhile, ASG defended the delay in filing the FIR saying it was not wilful but has been following the proceedings.
“After May 4, what steps have you taken? How many arrests have you made? What investigation have you done? How many people have been examined?” asked the CJI. Nataraj said these details were not specifically called for earlier.
The Court directed the investigating officer (IO) to place on the record the steps which have been taken to pursue the investigation since the incident took place on December 19, 2021.