New Delhi, Aug 31 (IANS): A Delhi court has asked the city's police chief to sensitise all Investigating Officers (IO) regarding the involvement of mobile phone service providers' nodal officers as witnesses in cases where Call Detail Records (CDR) have been presented as evidence in court proceedings in connection with a matter related to the 2020 northeast Delhi riots. 

The court has also asked the Delhi Police commissioner to guide IOs on the importance of submitting the complete set of CDRs before the court.

The matter in question pertains to a case registered by Gokulpuri police station, which had reached the stage of prosecution evidence presentation.

The prosecution had previously submitted evidence related to 19 mobile phone numbers, and one nodal officer from a service provider was examined as a prosecution witness.

However, during this examination, the witness revealed that only a partial set of CDR had been placed on record, raising concerns, and the IO responsible for the case was not present to explain why the complete CDR set was not presented.

The court said that the practice of extracting specific sheets from a CDR by an IO after obtaining it is not standard procedure and can raise suspicion if not adequately explained.

It noted that there were a total of 19 mobile phone numbers involved in the case, with information from seven numbers provided by one nodal officer and the remaining 12 by other nodal officers.

The names of these other nodal officers were not mentioned in the list of witnesses.

The court stressed that the IO should take the initiative to determine the specific nodal officer from whom certified copies of CDR were obtained and include that officer's name in the list of witnesses.

The judge also said that a copy of the court's order be sent to the Commissioner of Police to sensitise all IOs across cases.