The Delhi High Court has taken significant action by issuing a notice to the Delhi Police following allegations of tampering with the case diary related to the 2020 Delhi riots. The notice was prompted by a plea from activist Devangana Kalita, who has been a central figure in the case since her arrest.
Devangana Kalita, a student activist and member of the women’s rights group Pinjra Tod, was initially arrested on May 23, 2020, accused of inciting communal violence during the riots. Despite being granted bail shortly thereafter, she faced re-arrest under new charges, including stringent provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The plea, raised by Kalita’s counsel Adit Pujari, claims that the police manipulated evidence within the case diary by antedating witness statements—assigning them earlier dates than when they were actually recorded. This, according to the plea, was intended to strengthen both the primary and supplementary chargesheets filed against her.
The matter first surfaced in a lower court, where the Judicial Magistrate of First Class (JMFC) declined to probe the allegations, citing them as creating mere “suspicion” towards the investigative process. The magistrate directed Kalita to seek recourse at a higher judicial level.
Responding to the allegations, Justice Jasmeet Singh of the Delhi High Court has ordered the Delhi Police to prepare a status report on the matter and has scheduled the next hearing for November 25.
The controversy stems from FIR 59/2020 registered at Jafrabad Police Station, which implicates 18 individuals—16 of whom are Muslim—in what the authorities describe as a pre-planned conspiracy linked to the riots. This case has been a focal point for discussions on civil liberties, with rights groups asserting that Kalita and other activists, such as Natasha Narwal and Asif Iqbal Tanha, were targeted for their involvement in peaceful protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in 2019.
