New Delhi: In February 2020, when riots broke out in Northeast Delhi, a video allegedly showing Muslim men being assaulted by policemen who forced them to sing the National Anthem went viral.
The incident took place on February 24, 2020 in Delhi’s Bhajanpura.
Of the men in the video, 23-year-old Faizan, who sustained bullet injuries, died on February 28, 2020.
More than two years after his death, the Delhi Police Crime Branch has decided to announce a reward of Rs 1 lakh for information leading to the arrest of policemen involved in the incident, the Indian Express reported, citing sources.
The Wire had spoken to Faizan’s mother who had alleged that her son had died because of the police’s assault.
Watch: Delhi Riots: ‘My Son Died Because of Police Beating’ Says Mother of Faizan, Seen in Viral Video
According to the newspaper’s sources, the Crime Branch questioned about 250 police personnel and scanned a number of documents, including duty charts of the policemen deployed from outside the area during the riots.
“After questioning them, a head constable posted with the Delhi Armed Police was identified, but he denied his involvement. Later, his polygraph test was conducted, which he failed. Since the report of the polygraph test is not admissible in court, police took his voice sample from a video clip of the incident and sent it to the forensic science laboratory in Rohini,” a police source told the daily.
Sources also told the daily that senior officials of the Crime Branch have asked the special investigation team probing the riot cases to change the investigating officers of all cases that are still unsolved. This is to ensure new investigating officers look at the cases with fresh eyes.
Also read: Delhi Riots 2020: There Was a Conspiracy, but Not the One the Police Alleges
Recently, the investigation officer in Faizan’s case was also changed, the daily reported, adding that the new investigating officer was asked to propose a cash reward on the arrest of the accused.
HuffPost India had in June 2020 reported that the Delhi Police’s first information report – which was filed on February 28 at the Bhajanpura police station – omitted any reference to the police’s alleged role in the incident. The case was later transferred to the Crime Branch.
In December 2020, Faizan’s family had filed a plea in the Delhi high court saying that “the investigation conducted by the Crime Branch is a sham, designed at shielding the guilty men rather than investigating the crime.”
The Delhi high court in January 2022 pulled up the city police over the delay in identifying the police officials who allegedly assaulted Faizan, along with four Muslim men, and forced them to sing the National Anthem during the Northeast Delhi riots in February 2020.
