Magisterial probes become casualty of l-G, AAP jung

Five of the seven magisterial enquiries ordered by the AAP Government during the past six months have failed to make any headway thanks to the ongoing tussle between Raj Niwas and Players Building. Of the seven magisterial enquiries ordered by the Government since February, the Government has received only two reports so far. Taking serious note of the delay in filing reports in five magisterial probes, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia issued a stern direction to investigating officials. 

Sisodia raised the issue in a high-level meeting of top bureaucrats. Sisodia has directed the Divisional Commissioner to issue necessary directions to all concerned to take the magisterial enquiries seriously. “Keeping in mind the urgency, the enquiries should be conducted on a war footing. If required, training should also be given to all the magistrates,” Sisodia told the Divisional Commissioner in the meeting. 

It would be pertinent to mention that only six-seven magisterial enquiries were ordered by the erstwhile Sheila Dikshit Government during her 15-year rule. However, the Kejriwal Government had ordered seven magisterial probes in the last six months despite the lieutenant- Governor’s (l-G) dispproval. The l-G’s nod is needed for initiating magistrate enquiry in a case in the national Capital.

According to sources, the Government has received reports of magisterial probes into the murder of a teenaged girl Meenakshi, who was stabbed 32 times in Anand Parbat, and in the Nipun Malhotra case where a posh eatery denied entry to the disabled activist. The Government has even failed to complete the probe into the much-publicised death of Rajasthan-based farmer Gajendra Singh, who had committed suicide in front of top AAP functionaries and mediapersons at Jantar Mantar. Since the police had registered a criminal case into the matter, the lieutenant-Governor told the Government that there was no need to hold a separate magisterial enquiry into the matter. But, the AAP went ahead with its enquiry. But the district magistrate has failed to complete his probe for want to evidence, which the police have refused outright to share with. 

Despite the lieutenant Governor's reservation, the Government even went ahead in ordering a magisterial probe into the alleged gang-rape of a 35-year-old Nigerian woman inside a moving car. The woman was found unconscious at the DND toll plaza near Mayur Vihar in east Delhi. The police had examined the footage obtained from the CCTV cameras installed at DND and found that she was dropped off by four men driving a Hyundai Accent car. The police had arrested all the four accused and confiscated the car from Mayur Vihar. The Nigerian woman was on a tourist visa in India.

Besides, the Government had ordered an enquiry into a rioting case in which two AAP MlAs Sanjiv Jha from Burari and Akhilesh Tripathi from Model Town were booked by the Delhi Police.Even the magisterial enquiry into the high-profile Manoj Vashisht encounter, which took place in a restaurant in Rajendra Nagar, is yet to see the light of the day with the police refusing to share details about the criminal investigations with the District Magistrial.While the Government has been unable to make any breakthrough in getting the magisterial enquiries done in several cases, it has announced another probe into the building collapse case of west Delhi where four people lost their lives.

Taking a serious note of an incident involving a differently-abled person allegedly being denied entry in a restaurant, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia directed sub-divisional magistrate, Vasant Vihar, to conduct the inquiry and submit the factual report to his office. The bar and restaurant KEYA situated in DlF Promenade Mall in South Delhi's Vasant Kunj had reportedly refused to allow entry to Nipun Malhotra. The probe report has reportedly recommended that the Delhi Government give a stern warning to the restaurant and frame guidelines about sensitive behaviour towards differently abled persons.