UGC draft protest case (Photo: X)
NEW DELHI: Delhi Police has sought time for further investigation from the Rouse Avenue court and filed a status report in a case pertaining to a protest against the UGC Regulations Draft at Jantar Mantar in 2023.
An FIR was lodged at Parliament Street Police Station in 2023, and a charge sheet has already been filed naming leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, KC Venugopal, Akhilesh Yadav, A Raja and Kanimozhi.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Ashwani Panwar conducted the hearing, wherein the Delhi Police filed a status report and sought time for further investigation.
The Rouse Avenue Court had earlier asked the Delhi Police why notices were not issued to the proposed accused persons to join the investigation and why the police report was filed without issuing notices to 10 of the accused persons.
At the previous hearing on February 19, ACJM Paras Dalal had noted that 11 persons had been arraigned as accused in the charge sheet.
The police report shows that one accused, CVMP Ezhilarasan, was issued a notice to join the investigation under Section 35(3) of the BNSS via email dated 07.04.2025, the court had noted. The Court further noted that the police report then submitted that the accused did not join the investigation. No further steps were taken by the Investigation Officer (IO) for joining the accused CVMP Ezhilarasan in the investigation of the present matter. Regarding the other 10 accused persons, no notice was issued by the IO for joining the investigation in the present matter.
The court had observed that the IO did not comply with the judgement of the Supreme Court in the case of Satyender Kumar Antil and was in violation of the standing order of the Delhi police of 2020.
