Northeast Delhi riots: Court summons two cops in Faizan death case; CBI drops murder charge
A Delhi court has summoned two police officers in the 2020 Faizan death case after a CBI chargesheet. Here's why the murder charges against the accused were dropped and what happens next.
3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Feb 6, 2026 03:37 PM IST
Murder charge against Head Constable Ravinder Kumar and Constable Pawan Yadav had been invoked in the FIR but was not retained in the chargesheet (File photo).
Over five years after a 23-year-old Muslim youth died after allegedly being assaulted by a group of police personnel during the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots, a Delhi court on Wednesday summoned two officers after taking cognisance of the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) chargesheet against them.
“During the probe, evidence was collected by the Investigating Officer (IO), and on the basis of the investigation carried out, the present chargesheet has been filed against accused Head Constable Ravinder Kumar and Constable Pawan Yadav. There is sufficient material on record to take cognizance for commission of offences under sections 323, 325, 304(II) read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and substantive offences thereof,” said Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Mayank Goel in his order dated February 4.
The CBI had filed the chargesheet against Kumar and Yadav in January under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt), and 304(ii) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) read with Section 34 (common intention) of the IPC. Murder had been invoked in the FIR but was not retained in the chargesheet.
The Delhi court summoned the two officers to appear before it on February 24. The mother of victim Faizan had filed a petition alleging that her son had died “at the hands of Delhi Police by reason of unlawful use of force and authority”.
The CBI was represented in court by Senior Public Prosecutor Prashant Kumar Sharma.
‘Murder charge removed as probe found no intent to kill’
According to sources, the CBI chose to remove the murder charge as they concluded that the homicide took place during riot control and the officers did not have the intention to kill Faizan.
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A purported video of the incident showed police personnel assaulting five men, including Faizan, and forcing them to sing the National Anthem and Vande Mataram, and prodding them with sticks as they lay on the ground. The men sustained injuries, while Faizan later died.
In Faizan’s case, the Delhi Police had in July 2024 initiated departmental inquiries against two policemen. The Delhi High Court in the same month had directed the CBI to probe Faizan’s death. Acting on a petition by Faizan’s mother that sought a probe by a court-monitored Special Investigation Team into her son’s killing, the Delhi HC had stated that the police actions amounted to a “hate crime”, “motivated and driven by religious bigotry”.
The HC had also termed the police probe as “tardy”, “sketchy”, and “conveniently sparing the persons who are suspected to be involved in brutally assaulting” Faizan. “What is worse is that the suspects were entrusted to act as custodians of the law and were in a position of power and authority, but seemed to have been driven by bigoted mindsets,” the Delhi HC had underlined.
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On January 19, ACJM Goel had directed the IO to file a written reply in brief mentioning the reasons for filing the “chargesheet under Section 304 (2) IPC despite the fact that the FIR has been registered under Section 302 (murder) IPC”.
Nirbhay Thakur is a Senior Correspondent with The Indian Express who primarily covers district courts in Delhi and has reported on the trials of many high-profile cases since 2023.
Professional Background
Education: Nirbhay is an economics graduate from Delhi University.
Beats: His reporting spans the trial courts, and he occasionally interviews ambassadors and has a keen interest in doing data stories.
Specializations: He has a specific interest in data stories related to courts.
Core Strength: Nirbhay is known for tracking long-running legal sagas and providing meticulous updates on high-profile criminal trials.
Recent notable articles
In 2025, he has written long form articles and two investigations. Along with breaking many court stories, he has also done various exclusive stories.
1) A long form on Surender Koli, accused in the Nithari serial killings of 2006. He was acquitted after spending 2 decades in jail. was a branded man. Deemed the “cannibal" who allegedly lured children to his employer’s house in Noida, murdered them, and “ate their flesh” – his actions cited were cited as evidence of human depravity at its worst. However, the SC acquitted him finding various lapses in the investigation. The Indian Express spoke to his lawyers and traced the 2 decades journey.
2) For decades, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been at the forefront of the Government’s national rankings, placed at No. 2 over the past two years alone. It has also been the crucible of campus activism, its protests often spilling into national debates, its student leaders going on to become the faces and voices of political parties of all hues and thoughts. The Indian Express looked at all court cases spanning over two decades and did an investigation.
3) Investigation on the 700 Delhi riots cases. The Indian Express found that in 17 of 93 acquittals (which amounted to 85% of the decided cases) in Delhi riots cases, courts red-flag ‘fabricated’ evidence and pulled up the police.
Signature Style
Nirbhay’s writing is characterized by its procedural depth. He excels at summarizing 400-page chargesheets and complex court orders into digestible news for the general public.
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