Court's "Last Warning" After Key Witness Not Summoned In Delhi Riots Case

A court in Delhi on Monday gave a "last warning" to the prosecution to "wake up" after noting that it did not summon the relevant witnesses in a case related to the 2020 northeast Delhi riots.  

The court was examining a prosecution witness, Manoj Kumar, in the case of rioting registered by the Khajuri Khas police station against Noor Mohammad and Nabi Mohammad.

"At the cost of repetition of previous directions, it is again reminded that before obtaining a summons for any witness, a duty has been cast upon the investigating officer and the prosecutor to ensure the relevance of such a witness in the case and apparently, it was not so done. 

Therefore, they must take care in the future," Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala said.

"After this incident, no more such mishappenings shall be taken leniently by this court and this would be the last warning for the prosecution to wake up," the judge added.  

The court said the prosecution did not check the case record and sought "one more last opportunity".

During the proceedings, the counsel for the accused said there was no mention of the complaint of Manoj Kumar in the chargesheet and though several complaints were clubbed with the present case, charges were framed only in respect of two from Dalip and Shiv Kumar Raghav.

"I have perused the record.... It has been conceded that charges were not framed in respect of the complaint made by the witness present today or even by the witness who has been summoned for tomorrow," the judge said.

Saying that there was no purpose in examining Manoj Kumar, the court discharged him unexamined. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)