The Delhi Police Crime Branch has registered a case following violence during a CJP protest in July, acting on the Supreme Court’s directions and examining whether the disorder was planned or involved criminal elements entering the demonstration. The supplied report gives conflicting figures for the number of people named: it refers to 2,873 identified individuals in several places but also says cases were registered against 2,874 people.
The investigation will focus on violence reported between 20 and 26 July around the protest site at Jantar Mantar and the route towards Parliament in New Delhi. According to the report, police personnel were attacked during the demonstration, while police vehicles and other public property were damaged.
A Crime Branch officer was quoted as saying that investigators would examine whether the violence had been pre-planned or whether criminal elements had joined the protest during the attempted Parliament march. The report also says CCTV footage indicated that some protesters were moving towards Parliament in an organised manner.
The case follows proceedings before the Supreme Court. The report says Delhi Police had already cancelled 17 first information reports after the court’s directions and that the Crime Branch inquiry would now concentrate on the violence recorded during the six-day period from 20 to 26 July.
Delhi Police had deployed two vehicles fitted with facial-recognition-system cameras around the Jantar Mantar protest site during that period. The report says the cameras identified 2,873 people with alleged criminal records. Of these, 2,402 were described as linked to police criminal-history records and 471 to dossier records. The report does not establish how many of those identified have been formally charged, and it notes that facial-recognition systems can also identify people who resemble individuals in police records.
The police are expected to verify those identifications during the investigation rather than treat the camera results as conclusive. The report says Delhi Police submitted details of the 2,873 identified people in an affidavit before the Supreme Court on 17 August.
More than 118 police personnel were reportedly injured during the protest, including senior officers and women and men from several ranks. Around 60 protesters were also reported to have suffered injuries. The report further states that 20 government vehicles and other government property were damaged during the incident.
The Crime Branch’s next steps, according to the report, will include examining video evidence, determining the role of identified individuals, assessing the extent of damage to public assets and establishing whether the violence involved prior planning. The precise number of people against whom cases have been registered remains to be clarified because of the conflicting figures in the supplied account.
