On 1st April, several media houses reported that a Delhi court ordered the registration of an FIR against BJP leader and Delhi minister Kapil Mishra in the 2020 Delhi riots case. It was reported that Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Vaibhav Chaurasia accepted the petition of Yamuna Vihar resident Mohammad Ilyas seeking FIR Mishra, along with the Station House Officer (SHO) of Dayalpur police station and five others.
The media reports quoted the judge as saying that a cognizable offence was made out against Mishra. Md Zubair, an Islamist propagandist posing as a fact checker, also amplified such a report, saying that the court ordered an FIR against the BJP leader.
However, now it has emerged that the court never ordered the registration of any FIR against Mishra in the case. The court had only ordered a further probe on the allegations against him. The order issued by Magistrate Vaibhav Chaurasia said, “Let the further investigation be initiated with respect to proposed accused no. 2 and his associates with respect to first incident only and cognizable offence has been disclosed by the complainant.”
There is no mention of ordering any FIR in the order dated 1 April 2025. The court had also noted that FIRs were already registered in regard to other incidents mentioned by the petitioner.
Notably, Delhi Police had opposed the plea, saying that Kapil Mishra was being framed and he had no role to play in the riots.
Kapil Mishra had appealed against the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate’s order for further probe against him, and Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Kaveri Baweja of the Rouse Avenue Courts today accepted the plea and stayed the order. The court noted that Magistrate Vaibhav Chaurasia ordered a further probe against Kapil Mishra and his associates despite the fact that FIRs had already been registered in the Delhi riot cases mentioned in the petition against Mishra, and the trial was pending in the concerned Courts.
The court stated, “Let notice of the revision petition be issued to the respondents returnable on 21.04.2025. The record of the court of Ld. ACJM be also requisitioned for the next date fixed. In the meantime, the operation of the impugned order shall remain stayed till the next date of hearing.”
