Riots pre-planned conspiracy: Delhi Police to top court

STRONGLY opposing the bail pleas of activists Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and others in the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, the Delhi Police told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that the violence was not spontaneous but an “orchestrated, pre-planned and well-designed” assault on the sovereignty of the nation.

- SUCHITRA KALYAN MOHANTY @New Delhi

HIGHLIGHTING years of stagnation in a clutch of petitions linked to the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the city police to place on record the latest status of the investigation. The direction came as the bench noted that several pleas — including those seeking criminal action against political leaders for alleged hate speech — have remained pending since 2020 without the petitioners invoking alternative statutory remedies available to them.

A division bench of Justices Vivek Chaud-hary and Manoj Jain, while hearing multiple matters arising from the February 2020 communal violence, flagged the prolonged penden-cy. The judges orally observed that although an alternate remedy existed, “the petitioners have not availed it,” adding that the cases had remained before the court for six years.