Delhi Police probing allegations of police firing during CAA protests: Officials

Delhi Police is probing recent incidents of violence and rioting, including allegations that police personnel resorted to firing during a protest against the amended Citizenship Act in southeast Delhi, officials said on Sunday. A video had cropped up showing policemen opening fire on a stone-pelting protesters at Mathura Road. However, the Delhi Police had denied any firing by its personnel.

A media report claimed that the incident of firing was registered in a police diary, but a senior official said that if anything like that happened it was an act of "self-defence" by cops "under attack" from the stone pelters as could be seen in the purported video. In the purported video, three policemen were seen taking shield behind a wall when protesters were on the rampage and pelting stones on them. Two policemen pulled out their service pistol and fired three shots towards the stone pelters and rushed to a safe location.

The video was shot at Mathura Road where major violence took place on December 15. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Chinmoy Biswal said the probe related to all the violence during the protests was being investigated by the special investigation team of the Crime Branch. The Crime Branch is investigating 10 cases in total in connection with the violence, the official said.

Of the 10 cases, two each were registered at Dayalpur and Jamia Nagar police stations. One each was registered at Seelampur, Jafrabad, Nand Nagri, Seemapuri, Daryaganj and New Friends Colony. After the incident, the Delhi Police has maintained that no gunshots were fired on protesters. Even a protester, who is undergoing treatment at Safdurjung hospital, was suspected to have received bullet injury but later it was claimed that injury was from shards of tear gas. PTI AMP HMB