A Delhi court has issued summons to two officers of Delhi police in connection with the case of the death of a 23-year-old Muslim man who was forced to sing the national anthem and beaten with lathis by Delhi Police during the Delhi pogrom of 2020, the Bar and Bench reported.
The case became headlines when the video of the incident went viral on social media, where two policemen were seen beating the victim, Faizan, with sticks and forcing him to sing the national anthem.A Delhi court on Wednesday took cognizance of the CBI chargesheet and summoned two officers in the case.
“During the probe, evidence was collected by the Investigating Officer (IO), and on the basis of the investigation carried out, the present chargesheet has been filed against accused Head Constable Ravinder Kumar and Constable Pawan Yadav. There is sufficient material on record to take cognizance for commission of offenses under sections 323, 325, and 304(II) read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and substantive offenses thereof,” said Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Mayank Goel in his order dated February 4, as reported by the Indian Express.
The chargesheet had been filed against Kumar and Yadav by the CBI in January under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt), and 304(ii) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) read with Section 34 (common intention) of the IPC.
Earlier to this, in July 2024, the High Court had criticized Delhi police for the failure in the case. Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani said that the incident fell in the category of “hate crime.”
“What is worse is that the suspects (police officials) were entrusted to act as custodians of the law and were in a position of power and authority but seemed to have been driven by bigoted mindsets,” Justice Bhambhani said, the Bar and Bench reported.
Meantime, the High Court had passed the order on the plea filed by Faizan’s mother, in which she alleged that Faizan was brutally assaulted by policemen at Kardampuri and then taken into illegal detention at the Jyoti Nagar Police Station, where he was denied any medical attention, eventually leading to his death.
