A police officer will be paying for his casual approach towards an inquiry. A Delhi court has ordered that Rs 5,000 be deducted from the officer’s salary because he failed to appear in court despite being repeatedly told to do so. He had asked for the case to be adjourned. The deducted money will be deposited in the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund.
The inquiry was related to the clashes that had occurred in February 2020, which had cost the lives of at least 53 people and caused injuries to hundreds of other citizens. The clashes involved the opposers and supporters of the Citizenship Amendment Act.
In the order dated September 25, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate has noted that special public prosecutors and investigating officers fail to make an appearance for hearings on the specified dates, and even when they do after much pushing and prodding by their seniors, they do so without going through the case files. To top it all, they then very casually and insensitively ask for an adjournment.
The Court said that such casual attitude and unbecoming behaviour on the part of the police as well as special public prosecutors has already been brought to the notice of senior police officers including station house officers (SHOs), assistant commissioners of police (ACP), deputy commissioner of police (DCP) and the Commissioner of Police, Delhi, and yet, all of them seem to have failed to prevent such incidents from recurring.
