Reprimanding the police, the court called their vigilance inquiry report report “Half-baked”, “useless piece of paper”.
On Monday, the Delhi High Court came down heavily on Delhi Police over a vigilance inquiry report filed by them. The report came after a Jamia Millia Islamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha, arrested in May in a case linked to last year’s riots in the national capital, said his confessional statement was leaked to media. Tanha had petitioned the court and alleged media trial.
Reprimanding the police, the court called their vigilance inquiry report report “Half-baked”, “useless piece of paper”. “This vigilance inquiry is even worse than what they do in an ordinary inquiry in a petty theft case. These are not files sent through couriers, these are hand-held files,” Justice Mukta Gupta said.
24-year-old Asif Iqbal Tanha last year had said that his statement of confession to police, which is not admissible in court and cannot be treated as evidence, was leaked to media and he was misrepresented.
The court had sought a reply from Delhi Police and a news channel responding to Tanha’s plea. To this, Delhi Police said it had shared the report only with the state government and Home Ministry.
“These are senior IAS officers. Where did you do the inquiry, who did you inquire of? Where were the files sent? Who took them to the Delhi government and MHA and who brought them back… there is nothing in the report. It is completely silent. These are not documents lying on road,” the court said, slamming the police.
“The vigilance inquiry report says that the allegations were unsubstantiated. No, the allegations were substantiated. You were to find out who did it,” the judge said.
Appearing for Mr Tanha, Lawyer Siddharth Aggarwal said the objective of the broadcast by the news channel was to “malign” him.
However, Delhi Police told the court it was “equally aggrieved” by the leakage of information and that it was undesirable. “It was not just undesirable, it was prejudicial to the accused and these things need to be controlled for fairness to the accused and purity of the investigation,” the court said.
The court has asked Delhi Police’s Special Commissioner of vigilance to attend the next hearing on Friday.
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