More than five years after the communal violence that engulfed northeast Delhi in February 2020, a troubling pattern has emerged inside courtrooms: judges are repeatedly calling out fabricated evidence and unreliable witnesses presented by the police.
An investigation into recent verdicts shows that in 17 of the 93 acquittals delivered so far, courts have openly criticized the conduct of Delhi Police, noting false testimony, manipulated records, and even &ldquo;fictitious&rdquo; witnesses. That is nearly one in five acquittals marred by red flags over the integrity of the investigation.
In judgment after judgment, judges at Karkardooma courts described police actions as &ldquo;egregious padding of evidence,&rdquo; &ldquo;artificial claims&rdquo; by officers, and &ldquo;false cases foisted upon the accused.&rdquo; Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh, while acquitting six men last month, warned: &ldquo;Such instances lead to serious erosion of the faith of the people in the investigating process and the rule of law.&rdquo;
The findings cut across several police stations &mdash; Dayalpur, Khajuri Khas, Gokalpuri, Bhajanpura, Jafrabad, Jyoti Nagar, and New Usmanpur &mdash; all at the epicenter of the 2020 violence that left 53 people dead and over 700 injured.
Patterns that emerged in these acquittals include:
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Artificial or fictitious witnesses: In at least 12 cases, courts found individuals cited by police who either could not be traced, or whose testimony appeared manufactured.
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Dictated statements: In multiple cases, witnesses told the court their complaints were written at the &ldquo;dictation&rdquo; of police, or supplemented with details they had never given.
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Manipulated identification: Courts repeatedly pointed to the lack of Test Identification Parades (TIP), concluding that accused persons were falsely shown as culprits to &ldquo;solve&rdquo; cases.
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Padding of records: Judges flagged instances where case diaries and timelines appeared altered to fit the police narrative.
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In one Dayalpur case, the court found a constable&rsquo;s claim of recognizing an accused &ldquo;completely unreliable.&rdquo; In another from Khajuri Khas, the judge said it appeared the complainant&rsquo;s statement was &ldquo;procured and prepared falsely and belatedly.&rdquo;
The pattern has sparked questions about the credibility of riot investigations. Of the 695 cases filed by Delhi Police, verdicts have been delivered in 116 so far: 97 acquittals and only 19 convictions.
For the families of those accused, acquittals bring relief after years of stigma and court appearances. But for judges, the repeated lapses point to a larger institutional failure. As one order put it bluntly: &ldquo;Merely in order to work out a case, a false case has been foisted upon the accused.&rdquo;
The Delhi riots were among the deadliest outbreaks of communal violence in the capital in decades. Now, as verdicts roll out, they are not only acquitting individuals but also exposing deep cracks in the very machinery meant to uphold justice.

Courts Flag Fake Evidence in Delhi Riots Cases

Judges find fabricated witnesses, false claims in nearly 1 in 5 acquittals since 2020

Courts Flag Fake Evidence in Delhi Riots Cases

Judges find fabricated witnesses, false claims in nearly 1 in 5 acquittals since 2020

September 17, 2025 | 14:55 IST