The Delhi High Court on Thursday agreed to hear on Friday a petition seeking a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) student protest and the violence that broke out during the ‘Chalo Sansad’ march to Parliament.
Follow the Jantar Mantar protests on July 24 live here.
The court’s move comes a day after it sought responses from the Center and Delhi Police on pleas seeking an investigation into alleged police excesses during the demonstrations.
Read also | Delhi HC says Jantar Mantar incident not ‘isolated’, issues notice on SIT: ‘There is a law on how…’
The matter was mentioned before the court by advocate Barun Sinha, representing the petitioner Satish Kumar Agarwal, former vice-president of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, who urged admission of the petition on Friday.
“Okay tomorrow”
Sinha asserted that the “so-called student agitation” had “held the entire Delhi hostage” and that the roadblocks had inconvenienced residents.
“Okay, tomorrow,” the court said.
Read also | ‘Keep CCTV’: Delhi HC on petition alleging police brutality during CJP protest
In his petition, Agarwal has sought a direction to the NIA – the country’s premier anti-terrorism investigation agency – to take over all FIRs registered by the Delhi Police in connection with the incidents of violence. The appeal also seeks directions to the authorities to identify all those allegedly responsible for acts of violence, vandalism, obstruction of emergency services, damage to public and private property and other crimes committed during the protests, and to register appropriate criminal cases against them.
