Report Reveals Complicity of Delhi Police in 2020 Communal Riots
The probe committee reveals that the investigations into the riots have been blatantly communal in favour of the BJP and its supporters.
By RMN News Service
A fact-finding committee – headed by a former Supreme Court judge Madan B. Lokur – has concluded in its report that Delhi Police colluded with criminal elements to commit a pogrom against Muslims in 2020.
The report, “Uncertain Justice: A Citizens Committee Report on the North East Delhi Violence 2020” released in October 2022 states that Delhi Police was complicit in violence against Muslims and behaved as an active party in the riots.
The report adds that due to lack of professionalism, Delhi Police advanced the political narrative of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of prime minister Narendra Modi to attack anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) protesters.
In its multiple chargesheets, the police, according to the report, echoed without commensurate evidence the prejudices of Hindu majoritarian forces of BJP that were at play during the riots.
Earlier, in 2021, a local court in Delhi had found that the standard of investigation into a large number of 2020 northeast Delhi riots cases was “very poor” as the police did not bother to take the investigation to a logical end after filing half-baked charge sheets.
The probe committee further reveals that the investigations into the riots have been blatantly communal in favour of the BJP and its supporters. It also accuses the Union home ministry – headed by minister Amit Shah – of deliberately delaying the deployment of additional forces in the violence-hit areas, even as the communal riots continued unabated between February 23 and 26, 2020.
The violence in Delhi took place when the Modi government failed to stop the peaceful protests by citizens who were demanding the revocation of discriminatory citizenship laws (such as the Citizenship Amendment Act or CAA) introduced by the government.
