Delhi court dismisses Tahir Hussain's plea seeking action against cops for filing 'false' report

New Delhi: A Delhi court has dismissed an application moved by suspended AAP Councillor Tahir Hussain, who was arrested in a case related to rioting in north east Delhi in February, accusing police officials of abusing their power and filing a false and fabricated report about pending cases against him. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Purushottam Pathak rejected the application seeking necessary legal action against the investigating officer or the Station House Officer or Deputy Commissioner of Police of North East and Deputy Commissioner of Crime Branch of Delhi police. Hussain had levelled the allegation while pointing out that the police had not furnished information to the court on a sixth FIR filed against him. But the court, in its 25 July order, said that there was no merit in the application and “not providing information is a bonafide mistake on the part of investigating agency”. During the hearing held through video conferencing, advocate Javed Ali, appearing for Hussain, told the court that initially Hussain had filed an application in March, seeking necessary directions to the police to provide copies of FIRs in which he has allegedly been booked along with the status report. The police had informed in its report filed before the court on 19 March that Hussain was booked under five cases, said Ali. Thereafter he was arrested in another FIR which was registered in February but the details were not provided in their 19 March report, Hussain’s lawyer further said. He claimed that this created doubt and showed that the sixth FIR was “ante dated, forged and fabricated” or the report dated 19 March was “manipulated”. The police told the court that there was absolutely no intent to furnish wrong information before the court as alleged and the Station House Officer may have inadvertently missed out on mentioning the sixth FIR. The court noted that “non-disclosure of accused in the sixth FIR was not deliberate and there was no point assuming that the DCP-North East and DCP-Crime/SHO concerned have deliberately withheld the information and that too for causing any harm to Hussain… It seems that not providing the information is a bonafide mistake on the part of Investigating Agency”. Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on 24 February after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.