Delhi court slams cop for manipulating evidence in 2020 riots case, acquits accused who was falsely implicated

The court acquitted accused Sandeep Bhati and directed the Delhi Police Commissioner to probe into the actions of the probe office and take action.

An attempt to murder charge was levelled against Bhati, who was accused based on a truncated video which showed the man was participating in the assault.

The court discovered that the probe officer had presented a truncated video deleting the sequence where Bhatia was seen actually trying to prevent the assault.

The court said the officer framed Bhatia instead of thoroughly tracing and prosecuting the actual culprits. He was arrested on December 23, 2020.

"The IO did not use the longer video, rather he cut short that video for 5 seconds, to omit the portion showing the accused stopping others from assaulting the victim," the court said as quoted by Hindustan Times.

The court added, " It is well apparent that the IO shrugged off his duty to properly investigate all these complaints and to submit his report based on complete investigation… there is no concrete evidence on the record of this case, except testimonies of these complainants, to establish the alleged incidents and reasons thereof."

On Feb 24, 2020, communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiraled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.