NEW DELHI: A city court has imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on Delhi Police, which would be deducted from the salary of the erring officer, for failing to comply with its orders of providing the chargesheet to the accused in two northeast Delhi riots cases.
The fine of Rs 5,000 from each of the cases would have to be deposited in Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Arun Kumar Garg said it was repeatedly brought to the notice of senior police officers, up to the rank of DCP, joint commissioner and commissioner of Delhi Police, that investigating officers and SHOs were not complying with the court’s directions, leading to “unnecessary delay” in trial/committal of cases.
“They are not even inspecting the file before the next date of hearing to ensure that all directions of the court are complied with in time. They have failed to mend their ways,” said the court in similar orders passed in both the cases.
The judge said, “This court is not oblivious to the fact that the burden of the aforesaid cost shall ultimately fall on the public exchequer. Hence, I deem it appropriate to direct the commissioner of police to order an inquiry to fix the responsibility for imposition of the aforesaid cost and to order deduction of the same from the salary of the officer found responsible for non-compliance of the directions.”
In one case, the court noted that the adjournment was necessitated due to non-compliance of its order dated January 11, 2021. In the other matter, perusal of the records revealed that the supplementary chargesheet was filed on June 21. By the order dated August 5, the IO was directed to supply the copy to the accused before August 20 against proper acknowledgment.
“It is submitted by the counsel that the accused has not yet received the copy of the supplementary chargesheet. The IO has failed to produce the acknowledgment regarding supply of a copy of the supplementary chargesheet to the accused in terms of the order dated August 5,” said the court.
