Delhi riots: Court imposes fine after prosecutor fails to appear for 10 months, seeks inquiry

After the prosecutor failed to appear before the court in a Delhi riots case for the last 10 months the court imposed a fine on the State and directed the police commissioner to conduct an inquiry.

New Delhi:Noting that the prosecutor has not appeared in a Delhi riots case for the last ten months, a court here imposed a fine on the State and directed the police commissioner to conduct an inquiry to fix the responsibility for the imposition of costs on him and ordered it be deducted from the salary of the person responsible.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Arun Kumar Garg imposed a fine of Rs 3,000 after an adjournment request was made during a hearing in a riots case due to the unavailability of the Special Public Prosecutor (SPP). The court was slated to hear the arguments on charges.

The judge, while allowing the request for adjournment, said the SPP has not appeared “even once” since the date of filing of the charge sheet in the case on January 30, 2021.

“Request for adjournment is allowed subject to cost of Rs 3,000­ to be deposited by the State in the court,” he stated in an order dated December 10.

“This court is not oblivious of the fact that the burden of the cost shall fall on the public exchequer and hence I deem it appropriate to direct Commissioner of Police Delhi to conduct an inquiry for fixing the responsibility for imposition of the cost and to order to deduction of same from the salary of the person responsible,” the judge added.

CMM Garg further directed the copy of the court's order to be sent to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (northeast district) as well as the Police Commissioner with a direction to ensure the presence of the prosecutor.

A day prior to this, another court hearing the riots cases expressed concern over the delay in disposal of riots cases due to the non-appearance of Special Public Prosecutors and directed the Delhi Police to appoint more prosecutors to represent the State.

“This is the state of affairs with regards to these riot cases, which are very sensitive in nature and for which this special court was set up. These cases were assigned to a panel of special PPs formed by the police so as to ensure proper and effective prosecution,” Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat had said.

He added that the special PPs to whom the cases are assigned do not appear in the court in several cases on account of which cases have to be adjourned without conducting any proceedings thereby resulting in the delay of their disposal.

Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi in February 2020, after violence between the Citizenship (Amendment) Act supporters and its protesters spiraled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and over 700 injured.

PTI