The Delhi High Court on Monday sought a response from the Centre, Delhi Police and Delhi government on a plea filed by he Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind seeking directions to the police to preserve CCTV footage of the recent riots in northeast Delhi.
The plea said that Delhi Police should be directed to preserve CCTV footage of the riot affected areas from February 23 to March 1 and should not remove debris without collecting evidence from the site.
It further sought FIRs against those involved in the violence and asked for setting up SIT comprising retired judges of the Supreme Court and the High Court.
The apex court bench comprising of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar issued notice to the authorities and listed the matter for further hearing on March 27.
During the Delhi riots the Delhi Police was seen to have initially failed in containing the violence that eventually killed 48 people.
Earlier, Delhi police said on Saturday, they have registered 690 cases and arrested nearly 2,200 people in connection with last month’s communal riots in northeast Delhi which claimed 53 lives and injured over 200. Of the total cases registered, 48 were related to Arms Act, police said in a statement.
They said 2,193 people have been either detained or arrested in connection with the riots. Of them, 50 have been arrested on charges under the Arms Act. Meanwhile, a 27-year-old man was arrested for allegedly being involved in another man’s killing during the violence. The crime branch, probing the murder cases registered during the riots, arrested Shahnawaz for allegedly killing Dilbar Singh Negi, 20, and is trying to identify other suspects in the case.
Earlier, in the Lok Sabha, on March 11, Union Home Minister Amit Shah praised the Delhi police for handling the situation when clashes broke out in northeast Delhi last month.
He had said, the violence was confined to 4 per cent of the city’s area, 13 per cent of its population and ended within 36 hours.
Amit Shah asserted that the Delhi Police have identified as many as 1100 people who participated in the riots by the use of face-recognition software. He further claimed that out of these, 300 came from Uttar Pradesh.
“I would like to place on record that after 25th February, no incident of rioting took place. There have been attempts to politicize these riots,” he said.
“MPs raised doubts about what the police were doing. It is the opposition’s right to question. But when the police were trying to control the riots, struggling with violence, we should understand,” he added.