A Delhi riots accused on Wednesday alleged before the Delhi High Court that an internal enquiry conducted by the police into the leakage of sensitive information to media about the probe “yielded no results” and was an “eyewash” and the probe into it should be conducted by an independent department.
Asif Iqbal Tanha, a student of Jamia Millia Islamia, who is chargesheeted in the Delhi riots conspiracy case told the court that sensitive information was leaked during the course of the investigation to people who were not supposed to have it.
Arguing before Justice Mukta Gupta, his counsel said it was necessary to “insulate the investigation” from the persons who are to be subjected to the scrutiny. “If an enquiry is not yielding the result, it is only important to go to the next step, which is investigation,” said senior counsel Siddharth Aggarwal, appearing for Mr. Tanha, who was arrested in May 2020 and was released from jail in June after the High Court granted him bail in the riots case on larger conspiracy.
“When enquiry yields no result, where people to be investigated are the same as those conducting it, where enquiry was within closed doors with no oversight, there is a mandate of entrusting that investigation to an independent department,” the senior advocate contended before the judge who posted the next hearing on October 1.
Mr. Tanha had moved court last year after his alleged disclosure statement in the main chargesheet filed in a riots case pertaining to the larger conspiracy, recorded by the probe agency during the investigation, was allegedly leaked to the media even before cognisance was taken by the court concerned.
