HC rejects former informer Ali's plea to investigate erring officials

Earlier this week, the Delhi High Court dismissed former police informer Irshad Ali's petition seeking initiation of departmental proceedings against the erring officers of Delhi Police's Special Cell.

The court's decision came in response to a reply filed by the Delhi Police, which submitted that it was going to appeal against Ali's acquittal in a higher court. In the light of this development, Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan, representing the Delhi Police, also informed Justice Ashutosh Kumar it would thus be rather premature for Ali "to ask for initiation of departmental action against the police officials who had participated in the investigation."

Ali, who spent four years in jail and 11 years fighting terrorism charges, had filed a petition in January with the Delhi High Court, seeking a criminal investigation. The bench, then chaired by Justice AK Pathak, had thus issued notice to the Delhi Police and sought a reply from them by May.

Advocate M Sufian Siddiqui, representing Ali, argued that the plea seeking a departmental inquiry was in compliance with a 2014 apex court judgement, delivered by a bench comprising of now Chief Justice of India (CJI) JS Khehar and Justice CK Prasad (now retired). The judgment "unequivocally" held and directed that "on the culmination of a criminal case in acquittal, the investigating/prosecuting official(s) concerned responsible for such acquittal must necessarily be identified." The apex court order also ruled that, "a finding needs to be recorded in each case, whether the lapse was innocent or blameworthy. Each erring officer must suffer the consequences of his lapse, by appropriate departmental action, whenever called for. "

In a separate petition, Ali has also appealed to the HC to issue directions to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), to reinvestigate the FIR that the agency had filed in relation to the case. In its closure report, the CBI had found the terror charges levelled against Ali by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police false. It had also attested Ali's claim that he was an informer of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Special Cell.

In December 2016, 11 years after the Special Cell arrested Ali, a sessions court in Delhi acquitted him and co-accused Maurif Qamar from various charges, including waging war against the country.

The CBI in its 2008 closure report had sought Ali's discharge. It had stated that his arrest did not inspire confidence. The report further said that Ali was abducted and held incognito because he refused to join a militant camp in Jammu and Kashmir. He was shown as arrested by the Special Police two months after he was abducted, along with alleged recoveries of RDX, pistol, and live cartridge.

The CBI had also sought action against the erring police officers for fabricating false evidence to implicate Ali and Qamar.

In his plea, Ali had sought the conclusion of the CBI's investigation regarding the role of the cops who initiated the case against him. He plead that even the CBI was silent on where the contraband was sourced from and who planted it on him.

Siddiqui said the complete truth has not come out, resulting in the failure of justice. Lastly, he had also argued that Ali's acquittal in the case was not a result of technical errors or genuine human lapses in investigation, or even the findings of the closure report, but that the Special Cell itself could not prove the charges levelled against him.

Ali is just one of the several who were incarcerated for years – on charges of terrorism, before they were acquitted by courts. Kashmiri Gulzar Wani is the latest against whom charges were cleared. However, the court's decision – in all 11 cases against him, came 16 years after he was first arrested.

Wani, who was cleared of all charges earlier this month, is however still incarcerated. Wani, is waiting for paper work to be sorted out before he gets the approval from the jail superintendent for release.