New Delhi: A Delhi court has issued an interim stay on an order directing the registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against Station House Officer (SHO) Salender Tomar of Jyoti Nagar police station, who was accused of assaulting Muslim men and forcing them to sing the national anthem and Vande Mataram during the 2020 Delhi pogrom.
On February 1, Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai of Karkardooma Court stayed the January 18 order issued by Judicial Magistrate Udbhav Kumar Jain. The magistrate had earlier directed the police to file an FIR against Tomar under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code, including Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), Section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), Section 342 (wrongful confinement), and Section 506 (criminal intimidation).
The stay order was passed without notifying the complainant, Mohd Waseem, or his lawyer, Mehmood Pracha, who only discovered the development on Monday evening while checking the case status online. Expressing shock, Pracha stated, “The order came as a great surprise to us. The court should have heard us before passing it.”
Waseem, who was a minor at the time, had filed an application in 2020 seeking the registration of an FIR against Tomar. He was among a group of Muslim men detained and allegedly tortured by the police, who forced them to chant Jai Shri Ram along with the national anthem and Vande Mataram.
Among those detained was 23-year-old Faizan, who died within 24 hours of his release from Jyoti Nagar police station due to custodial torture. In January, the magistrate’s court observed that the Delhi Police’s action taken report (ATR) merely denied allegations without detailing any substantive steps taken in a preliminary inquiry. The court emphasized that the SHO and other officials were involved in hate crimes against Waseem and could not claim protection under the pretext of official duty.
In August 2023, the Delhi High Court transferred Faizan’s death investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), stating, “Faizan’s death is a hate crime, [the] unlawful actions of Delhi Police [were] driven by religious bigotry.”
The case has once again highlighted concerns over police brutality and lack of accountability in cases related to the 2020 Delhi riots.
