Delhi High Court directs preservation of the Jafrabad riot case diary, ensuring evidence integrity, while rejecting activist Devangana Kalita’s plea for reconstruction of the police records in the 2020 case.
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NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday passed a crucial order in the ongoing legal proceedings surrounding the Jafrabad violence during the February 2020 Delhi riots, a tragic incident that claimed one life. The court directed the Delhi Police to preserve the case diary related to the incident, while rejecting a plea for its reconstruction.
Background of the Case
The case traces back to February 26, 2020, when an FIR was registered alleging that activist Devangana Kalita, fellow activist Natasha Narwal, former JNU scholar Umar Khalid, student activist Gulfisha Fatima, and others conspired to incite unrest in Jafrabad under the pretext of peaceful protests. The violent clash left the locality in turmoil and resulted in the loss of one life.
Kalita, who was arrested in connection with the case, was granted bail in September 2020, a decision later upheld by the Supreme Court on June 18, 2021.
Legal Proceedings
The petition that reached the Delhi High Court was filed by Devangana Kalita, challenging a November 6 order of a city court that refused to entertain her plea. Kalita alleged that the Delhi Police tampered with and ante-dated witness statements recorded in the case diary, raising serious concerns about procedural irregularities in the investigation.
Earlier, Judicial Magistrate First Class Udbhav Kumar Jain noted that while Kalita’s submissions had merit, the court could not examine the truthfulness of such allegations at that stage.
In response, the High Court had initially passed an interim order on December 2, 2024, directing the preservation of the police diaries. On Monday, Justice Ravinder Dudeja made this interim order absolute, while rejecting the request for the reconstruction of the case diary. The court stated:
“The petition is partly allowed. As far as the request for preservation is concerned, the interim order is made absolute. So far as reconstruction of police diary is concerned, the same is rejected.”
A detailed order is awaited, which is expected to provide further clarity on the matter.