Supreme Court urged for probe into Delhi violence on Hanuman Jayanti

NEW DELHI: APRIL. 18 – After clashes were reported in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri on Hanuman Jayanti, a letter petition has been filed in the Supreme Court, seeking “an impartial probe” by a panel headed by a sitting judge.

Several people were left injured as the area in the northwestern part of the city on Saturday witnessed violence after stones were allegedly thrown during a Hanuman Jayanti procession. This was the first time since February 2020 that the national capital saw clashes between two groups at this scale.

“The recent riots which erupted in the Jahangirpuri area in the north-west Delhi are a scar on the face of the constitution.

This is the second time that riots have erupted in Delhi in two years, and in both occasions, members of the minority community are only to be blamed,” reads the letter by lawyer Amritpal Singh Khalsa to chief justice NV Ramana.

The Delhi Police investigation “so far, has been partial, communal”, the petitioner has alleged, saying that seven people were arrested initially, and all of them were from the same community.

“The role of (the) Delhi Police in 2020 riots have belittled them and have weakened the faith of the people in them. With this letter, I beseech your lordship’s attention in exercising epistolary jurisdiction, thereby constituting a committee headed by a sitting judge of this court, to conduct an impartial probe into (the) Jahangirpuri riots,.”

Twenty-three people have been arrested so far in the case. The Delhi Police has not yet reacted to the claims.

The fresh spell of violence in the national capital comes as several other states witnessed clashes recently. Bengal, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh were among the states that reported such incidents during the Ram Navami processions recently.

-Hindustan Times