Delhi riots: Court directs police to preserve call detail records of 10 accused

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court Tuesday directed the police to preserve the call detail records (CDRs) of 10 accused from February 20-28 last year in a north-east Delhi riots case.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Dinesh Kumar said the CDRs of the mobile phone numbers of the accused persons were required to be preserved as it would not be possible in future to call them during evidence.

The court directed the investigating officer (IO) to take all the necessary steps within 10 days for CDR preservation and file a compliance report on February 1.

It was hearing a plea moved by accused Shadab Alam for directions to the police for preservation of CDRs of all the accused in the case as it was available only for a year with the mobile service providers.

"After going through the material on record and after hearing the submissions, I am of the considered opinion that CDRs of mobile phone numbers of the accused persons.  Moved by accused Shahdab are required to be preserved as it would not be possible in future to call them during evidence, if the court comes to a conclusion during trial that production of the CDRs is necessary for the just decision of the case. Hence, the concerned service providers shall preserve the CDRs of mobile phone numbers mentioned in the application for the period with effect from February 20, 2020, to February 28, 2020, till further directions of this court," the judge said his order.

The plea, filed through advocate Tara Narula, sought preservation of the CDRs so that they may not be destroyed after completion of one year and the accused can summon them for evidence during defence evidence.

Narula had told the court that she was not pressing for summoning of the CDRs at this point of time and was only seeking its preservation.

All the accused were arrested in the case related to the riots in Dayalpur area.

Communal violence had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 last year after clashes between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.