No SIT, no FIRs: Delhi High Court shuts the book on 2020 riots and Jamia violence probes

The Delhi High Court on Monday shut the door on one of the longest-running demands for accountability over the 2020 north-east Delhi riots, dismissing a batch of petitions that had sought an independent investigation into the violence — petitions that had been pending before the court since 2020 itself. A division bench of Justice Vivek Chaudhary and Justice Manoj Jain dismissed the petitions seeking a Special Investigation Team probe into two episodes that scarred the national capital: the communal riots that tore through north-east Delhi in February 2020, killing more than 50 people, and the violence at Jamia Millia Islamia University in December 2019, when police entered the campus during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. The bench also rejected pleas seeking the registration of FIRs against political leaders over alleged hate speeches made around the time of the riots, besides action against police officials accused of dereliction of duty. One petition had sought action against BJP leaders Parvesh Verma, Kapil Mishra and Anurag Thakur. Another had named leaders across the political spectrum, including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Manish Sisodia, Amanatullah Khan, Akbaruddin Owaisi, Waris Pathan, Mehmood Pracha, Harsh Mander, Mufti Mohammad Ismail, Swara Bhasker and Umar Khalid. Pronouncing the verdict, the bench said the petitions were being dismissed for the reasons set out in the judgments — but the detailed judgments are yet to be released, leaving the reasoning, for now, undisclosed. The petitioners had alleged that the Delhi Police's investigation into the riots was neither fair nor independent, and that a court-monitored SIT was the only route to the truth. The dismissal ends, at least in this forum, a six-year legal campaign for an outside probe. The verdict lands just days after the same court denied bail to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the larger conspiracy case arising from the riots — a case in which several accused have spent years in custody awaiting trial. For the families who lost homes, shops and loved ones in February 2020, Monday's order means the investigation they distrusted will face no independent scrutiny. The book, the court has ruled, is closed.