The Delhi High Court on Monday requested a detailed report from the police concerning the preservation of case diaries related to the investigation of activist Devangana Kalita, linked to the February 2020 riots in Northeast Delhi.
During the proceedings before Justice Vikas Mahajan, the counsel for Kalita emphasized the necessity of adhering to a previous high court order which mandated the preservation of investigative records. The court instructed the police to file a formal response on their compliance with this directive and scheduled the next hearing for January 31.
Kalita’s legal challenges began last year when she accused the police of inserting “antedated” statements into the case diary, a practice she claimed was not permissible under law. She has since been seeking a court order to both reconstruct and safeguard the integrity of the case diary.
In a significant development on December 2 of the previous year, the high court had already ordered the preservation of the case diaries involved in Kalita’s case. Her lawyer argued in the latest hearing that despite the high court’s order, the prosecution maintained that the case diaries were part of the police files held by the trial court, raising questions about their handling and preservation.
The contention over the case diaries stems from a trial court’s earlier decision not to summon them as evidence, a stance supported by the police to avoid further delays in the proceedings. The trial court had also expressed its inability to probe the accuracy of Kalita’s claims at that juncture, advising her to bring up the matter at a more suitable stage of the trial.
