NEW DELHI: Hearing a plea seeking registration of an FIR against Delhi Police top brass and personnel of Rapid Action Force and other paramilitary forces over alleged excesses against students during the Cockroach Janta Party-led march to Parliament on July 20, a Delhi court on Wednesday ordered the city police to preserve the CCTV footage of the violence and file a compliance report by August.
Event Context
The petitioner in its writ petition before the high court had asserted that he had lodged a written complaint against police personnel concerning the alleged brutality on the protestors, waited for more than an hour for receiving the acknowledgement receipt of the complaint, but the duty officer as well as the SHO refused to provide him with the same.
The Delhi Police’s and the Centre’s counsel, Ashish Dixit, had submitted that a temporary technical glitch had prevented the issuance of the acknowledgement on the day the complaint was filed and assured the court that it would be generated and provided to the petitioner.
Player Focus
In its application, advocate Abhijit Anand, through his NGO Anand Legal Aid Forum Trust, has sought registration of an FIR against the commissioner, Joint Commissioner of Police, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northeast), Assistant Commandant of Rapid Action Force (RAF) and other identified Delhi Police and paramilitary officers, seeking action against them in connection with the violence.
Match Outlook
In its order released on Thursday, Judicial Magistrate First Class Kautuk Bhardwaj of Patiala House courts stated, “…the SHO of Parliament Street police station will ensure that the CCTV preservation of the alleged incident is carried out and will file the compliance report. Needless to say, the direction will be ignored if the necessary action for preservation has already been taken in pursuance to the order of any other Court”.
The next hearing date has been set for August 18.
The court also asked the petitioner to clarify his locus standi in filing the present plea.
The Delhi Police had maintained that the unauthorised march was handled professionally. However, several videos from the protest show several unarmed young demonstrators being beaten by security personnel in full riot gear.
The application seeking FIR comes a day after the Delhi High Court refused to direct legal action against officials of the Parliament Street police station for their failure to provide an acknowledgement receipt for the petitioner’s complaint against the senior officers regarding the alleged police excesses.
