A Delhi court has imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on the prosecution for producing an irrelevant witness in a case related to the 2020 northeast riots, saying that it is showing “no respect” for the time of witnesses, court, or the money of public exchequer, “despite repeated directions.”

Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala imposed the fine after observing that a prosecution witness was discharged without being examined because of a mix-up by the prosecution regarding the time and date of a rioting incident.

“No respect for the time of the witness, time of this court, and money of public exchequer is being shown by prosecution despite repeated directions. Hence, I am compelled to impose a cost of Rs 5,000 upon the prosecution,” the judge said in an order passed on 17 August.

The court noted that in the morning, one witness Himanshu was present, but he was discharged unexamined because on perusal of his statement, it was found that he had narrated the incident at 6 pm on 25 February 2020, though the present trial was being conducted in respect of an incident allegedly taken place between 12 am and 1 am in the intervening night of 24 February and 25 February.

The witness was not relevant “at all for this case and hence, he was discharged and his name is being dropped”, the court noted.

“Unfortunately, despite giving directions to the prosecution in a number of cases for dropping irrelevant and unnecessary witnesses, no such step has been taken in this case by the representative of prosecution i.e. Special public prosecutors as well as investigating officers,” the judge said.

He also observed that such directions were also communicated to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), North East, but still same did not have any positive effect in this case.

Since the witness had already come to the court, therefore, he was paid diet money, the court noted.

The judge directed that the DCP concerned would fix the accountability to recover the fine from the responsible person.

“At the same time, a request is again repeated for the DCP northeast to sensitize all Special Public Prosecutors and Investigating Officers of all the riot cases to go through their cases to check, if any irrelevant witness has been cited, and to take immediate steps to drop them, rather than obtaining summons for such witnesses,” the judge said.

The court was hearing a case registered at Gokalpuri police station.