Are the Delhi Police so inefficient in their sleuthing? They first arrest Natasha Narwal of @PinjraTod on May 23, three months after filing an FIR against her & others for the Feb 22 anti-CAA sit-in at Jafrabad metro station. https://thewire.in/government/delhi-riots-natasha-narwal-uapa-pinjra-tod">https://thewire.in/governmen... via @thewire_in

Turns out FIR (48/2020) is a bit of a joke. It invokes IPC 353 (using violence against police) though the cop whose & #39;first information& #39; is basis of the FIR makes no mention of any violence whatsoever. Not surprisingly, the judge on May 24 grants Natasha (& Devangana Kalita) bail.

The cops suddenly find another FIR (50/2020), filed Feb 25, and rush to re-arrest them. Charge now is murder & attempt to murder, though the FIR doesn& #39;t name them or anyone else. Since the cops didn& #39;t arrest them first on this serious charge, they must& #39;ve just found the evidence!

It turns out murder is not the most serious crime the police is accusing Natasha of. May 29 night, they re-arrest her under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the law designed for catching and punishing terrorists. Once you are arrested under UAPA, getting bail is v tough.

So did @DelhiPolice serendipitously stumble upon evidence of her being a murderer when it realised its first FIR was rubbish? And equally fortuitously stumble upon evidence of her being a terrorist so that it need not worry about bail hearings any more?

No, Delhi Police is not lucky. Nor are they inefficient. This is the new reality @narendramodi has created in the first year of his second term. It all goes further downhill from here. Read my article, & #39;Democracy Quarantined& #39;, on what this new reality is: https://thewire.in/politics/as-the-first-year-of-modi-2-0-ends-its-clear-that-democracy-has-been-quarantined">https://thewire.in/politics/...