People’s tribunal on Delhi carnage reiterates failure of Delhi police, Centre

A people’s tribunal organised by civil society groups three weeks after the pogrom in north-east Delhi heard at least 30 testimonies of victims affected by the carnage and social activists working with those affected to rebuild their lives.

The ‘People’s Tribunal on Delhi Carnage’, which was organised in collaboration with Alliance Defending Freedom, Aman Biradari, Amnesty International India and Muslim Women’s Forum. The testimonies were given in front of Justice Aftab Alam, social activists Harsh Mander, Pamela Philipose and Syeda Hameed and academicians Apoorvanand and Tanika Sarkar.

During the tribunal, it became increasingly clear that there was a systematic failure of the police and state to protect its citizens and later to file FIRs. The police had failed to respond to the emergency calls for help and the jury felt that if the police had responded, then the violence could have been contained. Mander underscored that communal slurs by the cops was extremely disturbing and humiliating along with the breakdown in neighbourly relations.

Several testimonies pointed out that since some of the dead persons were migrants and not originally from the area, their deaths will go unaccounted for and their families may not receive any justice. Apart from the death count, all other damages have been under-reported by the Home Minister Amit Shah in the Lok Sabha on March 11, 2020, while addressing the house on riots, said the jury.

A survivor of the violence who ran institutes in north-east Delhi said that they were told that they would not be allowed to rebuild their institutions. “They asked us to leave our premises and never come back. They said they will not allow our business to run, forget flourish,” said the young man, who did not want to be identified.

“My entire life’s worth has been burned down in one night,” said Ruksana, a survivor, while another young man lost his father after a bullet pierced through his lungs. “We were not able to get to the hospital in time. My father had to be carried on a motorcycle and we were stopped several times on the way,” said the young man.

One important pattern that was brought up by the testifiers and the jury members was that medical help arrived too late due to police barricades, but when the victims went to hospitals, they were not given proper treatment.

Few hospitals like Al Hind and GTB successfully treated the victims, but there are reports of various private hospitals where not only were the victims refused help, the doctors also threatened Muslim victims and taunted them.

A resident of Brahmpuri, Mukesh Chand said that despite friendships having soured, they will have to live together. “That is their home as well as ours. We will live together again,” pointed out Chand.

The intentions on the Centre government were also questioned on the issue of Justice Muralidhar’s transfer notification to Punjab and Haryana High Court close to mid-night of 26th February, after he pulled up Delhi Police for falling to register FIRs against three BJP leaders, Kapil Mishra, Anurag Thakur, and Parvesh Verma, for their hate speeches which purportedly let to the violence.