Delhi riots: HC verdict on plea over death of man forced to sing national anthem

The Delhi High Court will pronounce its verdict on Tuesday, 23 July, on a plea seeking a probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the death of a 23-year-old man who was allegedly forced to sing the national anthem during the riots in New Delhi in 2020.

The judgment is scheduled to be delivered by justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani on a petition filed by deceased Faizan's mother.

In a video clip that had gone viral on social media, Faizan, along with four other Muslim men, was seen allegedly being beaten up by policemen while being forced to sing the national anthem and "Vande Mataram".

Kismatun, in her plea filed in 2020, has alleged that police assaulted and illegally detained her son and denied him critical healthcare services due to which he succumbed to the injuries on 26 February that year after being released.

Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on 24 February, 2020, after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control, leaving at least 53 people dead and around 700 injured.

Police, in a status report filed in the court in a sealed cover in 2022, had said the process of identifying the guilty police personnel was on.

In March, they had told the court that they were awaiting the forensic analysis of certain video footage from the National Forensic Sciences University in Gujarat.