TV9 Bharatvarsh linked an unknown “Tiranga” virus to the existing Coronavirus to present a sensational news report.
The rebuttal was in response to an article published by The Hindu which was published under a headline which read, “Rescripting north-east Delhi riots – and the question of justice”.
The letter starts out by addressing how the sources mentioned by the article are unverified and the article itself is “purely conjectural imagination”. It was also pointed out how the conclusions drawn from the article might be “indolence” (avoidance) or “crass communalism” (insensitive communalism).
The article covers several aspects with relation to the North-east Delhi riots and places a sort of accusation on the Delhi Police while pointing out supposed issues such as communalism in the killing of people in the riots, discrepancies in FIR filing and many more. Firstly, the letter addresses how the PUDR (People's Union for Democratic Rights, an independent civil rights entity) is privy to only a few FIRs and this ‘few’ is 6% in the riots. How this 6% is selected is unknown. The letter points out that unlike the PUDR which seems to be ‘unidimensional’ with relation to the riots, the police is committed to its twin principles which is providing relief to victims and ensuring legal action against perpetrators.
It was also pointed out in the letter that the 1,300 accused who have been arrested in over 750 cases almost identically belong to both the communities and not only belonging to one community as stated by the PUDR. It is also pointed out that the arrests were based on scientific and technical evidence all of which was present and scrutinized. Moreover, all the accused who were produced in front of the Judicial Magistrate were provided with the legal aid, thus, pointing out the false accusations of PUDR and the letter requests the PUDR to revisit the issue. Furthermore, the letter also points out that the accusations of malafide arrests were made by activists and that the police issued a response and remarks were not passed by the courts.
It also requests the PUDR to not only represent the voice of one community but to be fair to all victims as well as the sufferance of the victims is almost equal to that of the accused.
Importantly, it has been pointed out that the PUDR has been selective in choosing the FIRs and has likely to have shown single community bias, fragmentation, sectarian approach, etc. The ‘clubbing’ aspect pointed out by the article is addressed to be only a mindset of the author and not a fact as claimed by the article and it has also been pointed out that the Delhi Police files separate FIRs in all cases and has never carried out clubbing.
The letter points out how the Delhi Police has also moved a proposal to appoint a Claims Commissioner who would monetarily penalize offenders, thus offering compensation to victims and that the post has been appointed already by the Hon’ble High Court.
Lastly, two separate acts were combined in the article as pointed out the letter, comparing the action taken against Shri Zafarul-Islam Khan under Unlawful Prevention Act (which has been referred to as harassment) and the North-East Delhi riots which has been pointed out to be unrelated. It also points out that comparison of these riots to any other case is to not be done as it is difficult to find a similar incident. Furthermore, the letter points out the PUDR has been ‘over-zealous’ in reaching to a conclusion of “rescripting” the riots.
In conclusion, the IPS has requested The Hindu to publish this rebuttal in order to put facts into proper perspective to readers. Moreover, a promise of justice from the side of the Police has been assured and realisation of responsibilities of civil society organizations is requested. It is to be noted that this is not the first time that the Delhi Police and IPS have issued a rebuttal. Few days ago, a correction of an article published by The Wire in the form of a rebuttal on a similar case of Delhi riots was tweeted out as well.
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