Delhi court orders FIR in 2020 pogrom case over attack on minority family

A Delhi court has directed the registration of a new FIR for a targeted assault on a Muslim family during the 2020 North-East Delhi pogrom, in a rare judicial recognition of individual victim accounts about the violence.

The order was issued by Judicial Magistrate First Class Isra Zaidi at Karkardooma Courts, on a complaint filed by Rahees Ahmed. The court noted that the complaint “disclosed commission of grave and cognizable offences,” and that the allegations could not be clubbed with a general FIR.

“Such grave allegations cannot be allowed to be diluted or bypassed merely by clubbing with a general FIR,” the magistrate said.

Ahmed claimed that on the day of violence, his family was targeted by a mob armed with sticks, rods, and petrol bombs. The attackers, as per the complaint, burgled their house, burnt a tent house, and snatched valuables worth cash and jewellery. The accused persons include Vinod, Tinku, Aadesh, Mahesh, Suresh, Monu, and Anshu, among others.

The mob allegedly shouted slogans like “Jagdish Pradhan Zindabad” and “Kapil Mishra Zindabad” as they pelted stones, hurled communal abuses and resorted to violence involving the use of firearms and lathis.

Ahmed also implicated the police in not taking his previous complaint seriously. The court observed that the complainant could not be compelled to approach a redressal through an unrelated or a general FIR, which did not cover the details of his case.

The instruction to register a separate FIR is an important development, as individual complaints about the 2020 pogrom, especially from Muslim victims, have never been formally acknowledged or legally addressed.

This order to issue a separate FIR is one of the few legal acknowledgements by the system, especially in the likes of cases pertaining to the 2020 pogrom, as it had majorly affected Muslims in the region, leaving them bereft and their properties in shambles.