Last year in February, North East Delhi was affected with communal riots. A video which went viral showing five Muslim men being kicked, beaten and prodded with lathis by policemen. The five men were encircled and forced by the police officers to sing the national anthem while they were lying on the ground, helpless and grievously wounded. One of them was 23 year old Faizan, who died after being released from the police custody the previous day.
A writ petition was filed by Kismatun, the mother of Faizan. She was represented by advocates Vrinda Grover and Soutik Banerjee.
She prayed for court-monitored SIT probe, upon which Justice Yogesh Khanna directed the Delhi police to file an affidavit regarding the functioning of CCTV cameras of Police Station in Jyoti Nagar, particularly on 24th, February, 2020 and 25th, February, 2020.
The single judge bench of Delhi High Court also directed that if the CCTV cameras were not functioning, documents supporting thr fact need to be produced.
Along with this, an affidavit also needs to be filed regarding the preservation of documents of evidence related to the case, as per the directions of the court..
Petitioner's advocatesclaimed that the CCTV cameras of the police station were not working on the relevant date, upon which the police has filed a status report in the court saying that they are still trying to ascertain the identity of officers seen in the video. They also claimed that one policeman has been "pinpointed on probable basis".
In the petition, it has been alleged that Faizan was “targeted, brutally assaulted” and “injured by the policemen” at Kardampuri and then subsequently “illegally detained” in an injured condition at Jyoti Nagar police station, where he was denied timely critical medical care resulting in his death later at a hospital. The plea states that a night before his death, he had described to his mother, the torture that had been inflicted on him.
The plea, thus seeks for the constitution of a court-monitored Special Investigation Team to conduct a fair and impartial investigation into the custodial death of Faizan, along with the periodic filing of Status Reports before the Court and for a detailed affidavit supported by relevant material regarding the functioning of CCTV cameras at the concerned police station.
