[Delhi Riots] Delhi court issues last warning for prosecution to "wake up" after bringing irrelevant witness

A special court dealing with Delhi Riots cases recently pulled up the prosecution for bringing witnesses not relevant to the trial and issued a “last warning” to the authorities [State v. Noor Mohammad]..During the hearing, Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala was informed by the counsel for the accused that the witness in question did not have any complaints on the basis of which charges were framed against his client.“One more last opportunity has been sought by the IO (investigating officer) as well as representative of prosecutor. After this incident, no more such mis-happening shall be taken leniently by this court and this would be the last warning for the prosecution to wake up,” read the order passed on November 14..The Court, “at the cost of repetition” of its previous directions, reiterated that before obtaining summons for any witness, a duty was cast upon the IO and the prosecutor to ensure relevance of such witnesses in the case which was not so done. “Therefore, they must take care in future,” the order stated.It was also noted that despite its repeated directions previously issued in a number of cases for the prosecution to go through the record and check that all was well with the record, such an exercise was not undertaken in the present case, either by prosecutor or the IO. The Court initially went through the record, which was simultaneously also seen by the IO and a representative of the Special Public Prosecutor, both of whom conceded that charges were not framed with respect to the complaint made by the witness present or even by the witness, who has been summoned for the next hearing. “It has been also pointed out that in the charges, wrong date of incident has been mentioned. In view of the fact that charges do not mention the incident related to witness present today or the witness summoned for tomorrow, there is no purpose to examine them,” the Court added.The matter will be next heard on November 29..The case was registered on the complaint of one Dalip, who alleged that on February 24, 2020, a mob, brandishing weapons, barged into his automobile shop. It was stated that around 10-15 rioters broke open the workshop lock, stormed inside and set the vehicles on fire..Advocate Simran Chawla appeared for SPP RCS Bhadoria. Advocate Akhtar Shamim for accused Noor Mohammad..[Read Order]