Delhi court orders FIR against BJP’s Kapil Mishra for alleged role in 2020 riots

A Delhi court on Tuesday ordered a first information report to be filed against Bharatiya Janata Party leader and state law minister Kapil Mishra for his alleged involvement in violence that broke out in the city in February 2020, Live Law reported.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Vaibhav Chaurasiya of the Rouse Avenue Courts held that there was enough material to warrant further investigation into whether Mishra committed a cognisable offence, Bar and Bench reported.

Cognisable offences under Indian law are serious crimes that threaten public safety or order. The police can register a case and make arrests for such crimes without court approval. The crimes Mishra is accused of are cognisable offences.

The court said that the evidence put forward by the prosecution pointed to the fact that Mishra was present in the area in question and that “all the things were corroborating”.

The court passed the order on a plea filed by 57-year-old Mohammad Ilyas.

Ilyas previously told Scroll that he had approached the police three times asking for a case to be registered against Mishra, but was told that they would register his complaint only against unspecified “rioters”.

In March, the Delhi Police had opposed the plea before the court, alleging a conspiracy to frame Mishra in the riots, The Wire reported.

Ilyas was among the handful of citizens who approached the courts after police refused...

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