This development took place on June 3, when a reply was filed by an ACP informing the court about the home quarantine.

During a bail argument hearing of a 37-year-old man accused in the Northeast Delhi riots case, the Delhi Police informed a Delhi court that the entire Crime Branch team of the IO in this case was under home quarantine because of which they could not appear before the court.

This development took place on June 3, when a reply was filed by an ACP informing the court about the home quarantine. Additional Sessions Judge Tyagita Singh directed the officials of Bail section “to call for a fresh reply from IO through email and to send a link for meeting online to all parties concerned through their respective email IDs for online meeting for the next date.” The next date of hearing has been fixed on June 6.

The Delhi Police spokesperson confirmed the order. “From what we know, at least two police officers from the investigation team tested positive for coronavirus. The entire team has been quarantined and it is informed that their quarantine ends today.”

The accused, Surajuddin, was arrested by the Delhi Police along with six others for allegedly murdering Rahul Solanki (26), who was admitted to the GTB Hospital in Shiv Vihar on February 24 with gunshot injuries as per the MLC.

Police, while opposing the bail of the accused, told the court that granting bail would send an adverse message in the society since such crimes “should not happen in the national capital”.

Police told the court that they arrested the seven accused persons after they were identified from the CCTV footage and added that their mobile phone locations were found within proximity of the cell site locations and were identified by witnesses. All the accused are currently in judicial custody.

Surajuddin’s lawyer Abdul Gaffar told the court that the accused was not present at the place of incident at that time and this was a “targetted prosecution of poor and marginalised sections of society.”