A day after calling out notorious fake news peddler ‘The Wire’ for its false reportage, the Delhi Police today slammed another left-leaning media organisation-‘The Hindu’ for its misleading news report on the Anti-CAA riots that rocked the National Capital earlier this year.
Criticising an article titled ‘Rescripting north-east Delhi riots – and the question of justice’ that was published in ‘The Hindu’ today, the Delhi Police, in its response, claimed that the article was “factually incorrect” and was based on “wholly unverified sources and conjectural information”. In a scathing attack against the article published in ‘The Hindu’, the Delhi Police stated that the content of the article makes one arrive at an “incontrovertible conclusion” of either “pure indolence” or “crass communalism”.
Casting aspersions on the article published on ‘The Hindu’, the Delhi Police, in its rejoinder, claimed that the fact that the report admitted that the Delhi-based civil rights group, Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) was only acquainted with a handful of the total FIRs, precisely just 6 per cent of the total FIRs, says a lot about their motivations. It added that while the PUDR has taken upon itself to treat the Delhi riots as unidimensional, the Delhi Police is not suffering from the same “cognitive disability”. It stated that the police actions in cases of riots are guided by the twin principle of providing relief to the victims and ensuring legal actions against the perpetrators.
The Delhi Police also criticised the PUDR for its “dismal ability” in speculating the number and nature of arrests made in the Delhi riots cases. The statement said, “As per the records about 1300 accused have been arrested in over 750 cases concerning the riots. To the sheer discomfort of PUDR and its likes, in terms of the proportion of the arrested accused, the numbers from two communities are almost identical.”
The statement also added that the arrests made by the Delhi Police are based on scientific and technical evidence. Each arrested accused was produced before the District Magistrate and legal aid in form of Private counsel or a Legal aid counsel from the Delhi Legal Services Authority was made available for them, the police said. It further advised the PUDR to revisit its assertions which will make them realise that they have erroneously ascribed motives to Delhi Police.
“The allegations of malafide arrests falls flat on its face as several writ petitions have been filed in the honourable courts by “activists” with similar allegations where Delhi Police have responded and in none of the cases the Honourable Courts have not passed any adverse remarks,” the statement said.
Delhi Police also urged the PUDR to reorient its conscience by referring to the list of people who have applied for compensation from the Delhi administration and asserted that the sufferance has been almost equal for all the victims.
The Delhi Police also said that the PUDR’s tactics of “surreptitiously” cherry-picking FIRs and based on the selective set of complaints concluding that grievances of one community have not been recorded properly and non bailable sections have been diluted to grant relief to other community is testimony to the group’s “lopsided intellectual capabilities”, “single community bias”, “fragmentation” and “sectarian approach”.
Delhi Police has also slammed PUDR for extrapolating its conspiracy theories and conjoining the issue of action against Chairman of Delhi Minority Commission, Zafarul-Islam-Khan, under Unlawful Prevention Act with the North-East Delhi riots. The Delhi Police stated in no uncertain terms that the conduct of Zafarul-Islam-Khan and the subsequent action against him is totally separate and distinct from the North-East riots.
The statements assert that the report published in ‘The Hindu’ attempts to twist facts to paint the Delhi Police as communally biased. Furthermore, the Delhi Police has also accused the PUDR of making a false case against them by alleging that the police did not register complaints of victims belonging to a particular community. It said that the PUDR has been “over-zealous” to arrive at its predecided conclusion of “Rescripting” of the North-East riots.
What was The Hindu report about?
The report titled ‘Rescripting north-east Delhi riots – and the question of justice’ said that the Delhi Police had been particularly prejudiced in dispensing its duties in the matters concerning the Delhi riots. The report accused the police of stonewalling the justice in the north-east riots cases, selectively and aggressively pursuing a few FIRs and attempting to project the riots as a premeditated conspiracy.
Citing the Muslim casualties of the Delhi riots, which stood at 38 of the total 53, the article asserted that Delhi Police is taking action against anti-CAA protesters because they are Muslims. Alleging the Delhi Police of communal bias, the report states that the Delhi Police had let off Hindu aggressors while they have come down particularly hard against the Muslims, including “illegal detentions of Muslims” and refusing to cooperate with Muslims for filing FIR reports.
The report makes a reference to the 40 FIRs accessed by a Delhi-based civil rights group, Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) to allege that there has been discrepancies in the filing of the FIRs. It states that several Muslims have faced problems while registering FIRs while non bailable sections against Hindu accused have been evidently dropped. “Given the evidence in this small sample of FIRs, the communal bias of police in the north-east Delhi riots is evident in the manner in which the FIRs have been lodged by them,” the report read.
The report further adds that detentions have been used by Delhi Police as an instrument of intimidation. It has raised aspersions on the Delhi Police by questioning the coincidence of recent arrests of anti-CAA rioters belonging to the Jamia Millia Islamia University. The report also includes the recent punitive action against the Chairman of the Delhi Minority Commission to reinforce its assertion that the Delhi Police has been selectively targeting Muslims and not treating its subjects equally and aiding those who are guilty of carrying out the riots.
