Delhi Riot Case: Court Orders FIR Against BJP MLA Kapil Mishra

BJP MLA form Karawal Nagar and the Delhi Law Minister Kapil Mishra is in trouble as a Delhi Court on Tuesday (1st April) ordered registering a First Information Report (FIR) against him. The FIR is in relation to the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots case. 

The order was delivered by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Vaibhav Chaurasia, which came in response to a plea filed by Yamuna Vihar resident Mohammad Ilyas.

Ilyas moved the court in December 2024 in order to seek an investigation into Mishra and six other people’s role in the 2020 riots that resulted in death of 53 dead over 700 injured.

Delhi Police had opposed the plea saying that the BJP leader’s role was already probed and nothing was found. 

In his petition, Ilyas named Mishra, Mustafabad MLA and deputy speaker Mohan Singh Bisht, the then DCP (North East), the then SHO of the Dayalpur police station, and former BJP legislator Jagdish Pradhan, for their alleged involvement in the riots.

Ilyas narrated  that he saw Mishra and others to have blocked  a road in Kardampuri and destroying the handcarts of street vendors. This, according to Ilyas took place on February 23, 2020. He also said that the former (North East) DCP and some other officers stood with Mishra while he threatened anti-CAA protesters.

In his petition, Ilyas also said that he saw former Dayalpur SHO and others vandalising mosques across Northeast Delhi.

The police earlier named several student leaders and activists including Umar Khalid, Gulfisha Fatima and Sharjeel Imam as co-conspirators of the riots.

Contrarily,  a 10-member fact finding team formed by the Delhi minorities commission found that the violence in Delhi was planned and targeted and held Mishra responsible for it.

The report added-- “violence started in different pockets almost immediately after the short speech of Shri Kapil Mishra on 23 February, 2020 at Maujpur in which he openly called for forcefully removing the protestors at Jafrabad in North East Delhi.”

As per the report, Mishra clearly said that he and his supporters will take matters into their own hands. “but after that we will not listen to the police if roads are not cleared after three days…”the report stated Mishra as saying.