Delhi riots trials: Courts slam police over ‘fabricated’ evidence in nearly 1 in 5 acquittals

Complaints dictated by police, fictitious witnesses, fabricated evidence, manipulated case diaries and testimony padded with “additional facts.” These are not stray observations but a pattern repeatedly flagged by trial courts in Delhi in cases linked to the 2020 riots.

An investigation of court records shows that in 17 of the 93 acquittals delivered so far, judges have directly red-flagged improprieties in police probes, suggesting that nearly one in five acquittals was tainted by evidence the judiciary deemed unreliable or manufactured.

From orders that questioned whether key witnesses even existed, to rulings that slammed investigators for “egregious padding” of evidence, the findings lay bare what judges have described as a “serious trampling” of rights in riot prosecutions.

“Such instances lead to serious erosion of the faith of the people in the investigating process and the rule of law,” Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh observed last month while acquitting six men in a case from New Usmanpur.

A troubling pattern

Out of 695 cases of rioting, arson and unlawful assembly filed by Delhi Police, verdicts have been delivered in 116 till August 2025. Of these, 97 ended in acquittals and 19 in convictions. The Indian Express accessed 93 acquittal orders; in 17, courts flagged fabricated or artificial evidence.

• 12 cases: Courts found “artificial” witnesses or evidence that appeared “fabricated.”
• 2 cases: Witnesses testified their statements were dictated or supplemented by police.
• Several cases: Judges concluded investigations seemed aimed at closing files rather than pursuing justice.

In two separate cases, courts inferred that police avoided holding Test Identification Parades (TIPs) because they “were already aware” the accusations were fabricated.

Where courts found fault

The acquittals with judicial rebuke span multiple riot-hit police stations in northeast Delhi — Dayalpur (5 cases), Khajuri Khas (4), Gokalpuri (4), and one each in Jyoti Nagar, Bhajanpura, Jafrabad and New Usmanpur.

Sample observations:

• On a witness cited by Jyoti Nagar police: “Even the actual existence of any such person comes under a shadow of doubt.”
• On a Khajuri Khas case: “Statement was procured and prepared falsely and belatedly to solve this case.”
• On Gokalpuri witnesses: “Possibility of fixed line of statement to be made by them… indicates towards an artificial claim of witnessing the incident.”
• On Dayalpur records: “Probable manipulation in the case diary with regard to the statement of a witness.”

Larger backdrop

The Delhi riots of February 2020, triggered during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), left at least 53 people dead and more than 700 injured. While hundreds of cases remain pending, the courts’ repeated censure of fabricated evidence has cast a long shadow on the credibility of riot investigations.

For now, acquittals continue to pile up — with questions over whether justice was denied not just to the accused, but also to the victims of one of the deadliest communal flare-ups in the capital’s recent history.