The supplementary chargesheet was filed two days before the parliament session starts (File)
The Delhi Police have brought the criminal justice system to "ridicule" by mentioning the names of CPIM leader Sitaram Yechury, Swaraj Abhiyan's Yogendra Yadav and other scholars in a disclosure statement of an accused, attached to the February riots supplementary chargesheet, Congress leader P Chidambaram said on Sunday.
"Has the Delhi Police forgotten that between Information and Charge Sheet there are important steps called Investigation and Corroboration?" Mr Chidambaram, a former union home minister, tweeted.
"Delhi Police have brought the criminal justice system to ridicule by naming Mr Sitaram Yechury and many other scholars and activists in a supplementary charge sheet in the Delhi riots case," he added.
The other people named in the disclosure statement include economist Jayati Ghosh, Delhi University professor Apoorvanand and documentary filmmaker Rahul Roy.
The Delhi Police on Saturday clarified that they have not been named as an accused.
"It is worth mentioning that the disclosure statement has been truthfully recorded as narrated by the accused. A person is not arraigned as an accused only on the basis of a disclosure statement. However, it is only on the existence of sufficient corroborative evidence that further legal action is taken. The matter is currently in court," the Delhi Police said in a statement on Saturday.
The supplementary chargesheet was filed two days before the first part of the monsoon session of parliament begins. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has said his party will raise the issue in the two Houses.
Over 50 people were killed and hundreds injured, many with gunshot wounds, in the violence in north-east Delhi in February, after weeks of protests against the CAA and the National Register or Citizens or NRC.
Mr Yechury, a veteran parliamentarian, called the police actions "illegitimate, illegal".
"Delhi Police is under the Centre and Home Ministry. Its illegitimate, illegal actions are a direct outcome of the politics of BJP's top leadership. They are scared of legitimate peaceful protests by mainstream political parties & are misusing state power to target the Opposition," Mr Yechury said in a series of tweets yesterday.
Mr Yechury's party also condemned the police over the chargesheet.
"The CPI(M) condemns this obnoxious action by the Delhi Police to further the narrative of its political masters and urges the government to desist from such acts of criminalising peaceful political protests," the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Politburo said in a statement today.