'Flawed investigation': Nine retired IPS officers question Delhi Police's probe into northeast riots

Nine retired IPS officers, in an open letter to Delhi Police commissioner SN Shrivastava on, questioned the probe of the Delhi riots and called it a “flawed” investigation. The former officers have asked for a re-investigation of all riots cases “without any bias” and to base it on strong principles of a criminal probe. “As citizens deeply committed to Constitutional values, we condemn the arrest of Umar Khalid who has been subjected to a malicious investigation targeting peaceful anti-CAA protesters… With deep anguish, we have no doubt in saying that this investigation is not about the violence in the national capital, but on the completely peaceful and democratic protests across the country against the unconstitutional CAA,” read a statement by 36 signatories. As per The Indian Express, some of these signatories which include academics, artists, activists, and lawyers, were signed by prominent faces like Syeda Hameed, Arundhati Roy, Ramachandra Guha, TM Krishna, Brinda Karat, Jignesh Mevani, P Sainath, Prashant Bhushan, and Harsh Mander. According to The Print.in, the letter called the investigations and challans submitted by the Delhi Police as “partisan and politically motivated”. This, it further said, has “pained all police officers (those serving and retired), who believe in upholding rule of law and the Constitution”. The letter also claimed that one of the special police commissioners had tried to “influence investigations claiming resentment among Hindus over the arrest of some rioters from their community”. “Such a majoritarian attitude in the police leadership leads to a travesty of justice for the victims of the violence and their family members belonging to minority communities. This would further mean that real culprits of the violence belonging to the majority community are likely to go scot-free,” the letter said, as per LiveLaw. This letter comes days after decorated former IPS officer Julio Ribeiro, who was former Mumbai Police commissioner wrote to the Delhi Police commissioner, questioning the probe into the northeast Delhi riots cases. The Indian Express reports that in his letter, Ribeiro has said that the Delhi Police is taking action against “peaceful protesters” while ignoring senior BJP leaders who made provocative, communal public speeches in the build-up to the violence. “True patriots” are being entangled in criminal cases, he wrote. On Monday, a Delhi court sent former JNU student leader Umar Khalid, arrested under the stringent anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, to police custody for 10 days in a case related to the communal violence in northeast Delhi in February. Police had sought  his custody for 10 days  saying they wanted to confront him with documents running into 11 lakh pages. Khalid was arrested on  Sunday night  in the case. 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.