Delhi court’s advice to political parties: ‘In moment of crisis, forget vendetta, unite’
The police had initially registered cases against 18 people for allegedly damaging public property while staging protests in October 2003 at Madipur area.
A Delhi court on Friday exhorted political parties to put their “political vendetta” behind them and “unite in the moment of crisis instead of grinding their own axes”.
The court, while deliberating over a 2003 case of rioting, lamented that it was “unfortunate” that the opposition sometimes sided with the mob during protests “to somehow destabilise existing government”.
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While sentencing six persons to one year in jail on charges of rioting, Additional Sessions Judge Manoj Jain observed that “no one should be permitted to mislead and misguide the mob” and to “stir up and provoke their misplaced emotions”.
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“It is unfortunate that whenever any such a situation arises, the opposition normally sides with the mob simply to somehow destabilise the existing government. Our leaders should rather put behind them their political vendetta and unite in the moment of crisis instead of grinding their own axes,” Jain said. The court also observed that police should “videograph the entire episode” by making “best use of available technology” during riot cases.
“We see such type of mob fury virtually every other day. Property is burnt and damaged at the drop of a hat and police are usually seen as mere spectators. Police should rather acquire special skills in handling such type of mob so that no one plays havoc with public property and human lives. It’s, after all, the taxpayers’ hard earned money which is at stake,” Jain observed.
“The trial of such matters should be double quick as a delayed trial may eventually give undue benefit to some mob-members due to possible non-identification,” stated the court.
The police had initially registered cases against 18 people for allegedly damaging public property while staging protests in October 2003 at Madipur area.
Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies.
With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health.
His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award.
Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time.
Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More
