A Delhi court on Friday ordered an FIR against the Station House Officer (SHO) of Jyoti Nagar police station in connection with the brutal assault of Muslim men during the 2020 communal violence in the capital.
The order follows a complaint by Mohd. Wasim, who was among those allegedly forced by the police to sing the national anthem and chant nationalist slogans while being subjected to police torture.
The case pertains to a widely circulated video from February 2020, which showed a group of injured Muslim men lying on a street, being beaten by police officers while being compelled to sing Vande Mataram and the national anthem. One of the victims, 23-year-old Faizan, died a day after being released from police custody due to injuries sustained in the assault.
Wasim initially filed his complaint in July 2020, seeking an FIR against the officers involved. With no action taken, he approached the Karkardooma Court, demanding a formal investigation. Judicial Magistrate Udbhav Kumar Jain has now ordered the filing of an FIR under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 295A (outraging religious sentiments), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement), and 506 (criminal intimidation).
The court reprimanded the Delhi Police for failing to take concrete steps to investigate the matter. It noted that the Action Taken Report (ATR) submitted by the police merely denied the allegations without presenting any meaningful inquiry into the incident. The judge further asserted that the accused officers engaged in a hate crime and could not seek protection under official duty.
“The SHO and other unknown police officials cannot be shielded under the garb of sanction, as their actions were not part of their official duty but rather acts of hate,” the court observed.
Last year, the Delhi High Court had transferred the investigation of Faizan’s death to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), emphasizing that his custodial death was a hate crime driven by religious bigotry within the police force.
The latest court order marks a rare instance of legal action against law enforcement officers in connection with the 2020 Delhi violence, which disproportionately affected the Muslim community. The investigation will now seek to determine the extent of involvement of other police personnel in the incident.
