In fresh developments in the Delhi violence case, the court of Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala imposed costs of Rs 5,000 on the Prosecution for allegedly disrespecting the time of witnesses, court and the public exchequer’s money.
The court was hearing a case (State vs Mohd.Shahnawaz @ Shanu & ors.), where nine Muslim men stand accused in a matter pertaining to communal violence in North East Delhi.
In its order, the court noted that an “irrelevant witness” had been produced before the court. The man produced was a witness in an incident that took place at 6 P.M, on February 25, 2020, while the court was examining a case pertaining to an incident that took place on the intervening night of February 24 and 25, 2020.
The court said, “This witness was not relevant at all for this case and hence, he was discharged and his name is being dropped. Unfortunately, despite giving directions to the prosecution in a number of cases for dropping irrelevant and unnecessary witnesses, no such step has been taken in this case by representative of prosecution i.e. Special PPs as well as IOs. Such directions were also communicated to ld.DCP, North East, but still same did not have any positive effect in this case.”
Further castigating the Prosecution, the court went on to note, “No respect for time of the witness, time of this court and money of public exchequer, is being shown by prosecution despite repeated directions.” The court then imposed “a cost of Rs.5000/- upon the prosecution,” directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) North East to “further make enquiry to fix accountability, in order to recover such cost amount from the responsible person.” The court also directed the DCP to “sensitize all Special P.Ps and IOs of all the riot cases to go through their cases to check, if any irrelevant witness has been cited and to take immediate steps to drop them, rather than obtaining summons for such witnesses.”
The case was adjourned to November 30. The entire order may be read here:
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