The Delhi High Court on Friday directed the Delhi Police to file an additional affidavit affixing responsibility on the official who allegedly committed the offence of leaking the disclosure statement of North-east Delhi riots accused Asif Iqbal Tanha to the media.
A single-judge bench of Justice Mukta Gupta passed the order while hearing a petition filed by Tanha through Advocate Sowjanya Shankar alleging that the police leaked his confessional statement to the media.
Saying that in any case, an offence has been committed, the court said,
“The problem is that your property is already out. These are proven allegations…If your officer has leaked it its abuse of power, if for sanction this was entrusted to someone else, it’s criminal breach of trust and if the media has taken it away, then it’s theft.”
On the previous date of hearing, the Court had pulled up Delhi Police over the vigilance inquiry carried by it in relation to the leakage of a disclosure statement of Tanha.
Justice Mukta Gupta had described the probe report submitted before it as “half-baked”, “a useless piece of paper.”
The court had also asked the Special Commissioner of Police (Vigilance) to appear before it Friday. It said that such leaks need to be controlled for “fairness” to the accused and for “purity of investigation”.
“I will say this is a useless paper and rather it is contempt of court that this court had asked for a proper inquiry to be conducted on your own statement where you thought it was a matter of national importance and you were also aggrieved that your investigation papers have been leaked… and see this vigilance inquiry,”
-the court said.
“This vigilance inquiry is worse than even a routine PG (Public Grievance) Cell inquiry… what they do in an ordinary theft case,” observed the court.
The plea filed by Tanha, who was arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, said he was aggrieved by the coverage by various news and electronic media houses, and that he has confessed to organizing and inciting communal riots that occurred in North-East Delhi. He has sought direction to media and social media platforms to take down the concerned information.