Delhi court stays order for police probe into Kapil Mishra role in Delhi Riots

A Delhi court today stayed a trial court order directing Delhi Police to investigate Delhi law minister Kapil Mishra's role in the North-east Delhi riots. .Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Kaveri Baweja of the Rouse Avenue Courts passed an order today saying the magistrate court's order will remain stayed till the next date of hearing on April 21. "Let notice of the revision petition be issued to the respondents returnable on 21.04.2025. The record of the court of Ld. ACJM be also requisitioned for the next date fixed. In the meantime, the operation of the impugned order shall remain stayed till the next date of hearing," judge Baweja said. .The order came to be passed after Delhi Police filed a revision petition against the trial court's order of April 1. A separate revision plea was filed by Mishra in which also a similar stay order was passed. .Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Vaibhav Chaurasiya of the Rouse Avenue Courts had on April 1 said that a cognizable offence was found against Mishra, and therefore, further investigation must be conducted. The Magistrate Court passed the order on a plea filed by Yamuna Vihar resident Mohammad Ilyas. Ilyas sought the registration of a first information report (FIR) against Mishra on allegations that he took part in the riots, as well as against the then Station House Officer (SHO) of Dayalpur police station and five others..Delhi Police had argued that Mishra’s role had already been investigated and that nothing incriminating was found against him..In a detailed order, ACJM Chaurasiya had raised serious questions over Delhi Police's probe in the alleged conspiracy case saying. He said that the police's theory that riots were a pre-planned conspiracy by the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protesters is based on many questionable assumptions, guesswork and interpretations. “Once these flaws are outlined, therefore the theory goes off and so does the lens with which prosecution seeks to interpret the facts,” the Court said. The court also questioned Mishra's presence in the area and his apparent ultimatum to police to clear out the road, just a day before the riots broke out. The judge further said that while no anti-Hindu rhetoric was found in the chats of the present accused relied upon by the police, Mishra referred to the anti-CAA protesters as the other side and created a distinction of “us and them” with them being the Muslims. .Today, the Delhi Police argued that these observations were unwarranted. .Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad with advocates Aarush Bhatia and Dhruv Pande represented the Police. .Senior Advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey with advocates Siddhesh Kotwal, Paritosh Anil, Manya Hasija, Ana Upadhyay, T Illayarasu, Kaushank Sindhu, Rupraj Banerjee, Amrita Vatsa and Muskan Sharma represented Mishra.