During the hearing, the court asked solicitor general and Deputy Commissioner of Police (crime branch if they had seen the video clip of BJP leader Kapil Mishra making alleged hate speeches.

Delhi High Court Justice S Muralidhar was "amazed" to hear a senior police official tell him during a Wednesday hearing that the police had not watched footage of an alleged hate speech by the BJP leader Kapil Mishra.

Justice Muralidhar had asked the official, Deputy Commissioner of Police (crime branch) Rajesh Deo, and Solicitor General Tushar Mehra if they had seen the footage of Mishra.

Deo's response -- he said he had watched videos of BJP leaders Anurag Thakur or Parvesh Verma, but not of Mishra -- prompted the judge to say he was "really amazed at the state of affairs of the Delhi Police", and observe that the commissioner's office must have several TVs.

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He asked court staff to play the footage.

Justice Muralidhar also reacted sharply when Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said, when asked about the police personnel present at the spot where Mishra made the speech, that he didn't watch TV and could not base his reply on a newspaper report.

The judge told him the court didn't have the privilege of ignoring the news.

Justices Muralidhar and Talwant Singh were hearing a plea seeking lodging of FIRs and arrests of those involved in the ongoing communal violence in parts of northeast Delhi over the Citizenship Amendment Act.

They asked Tushar Mehta to advise the police commissioner on the lodging of FIRs against alleged hate speeches by three BJP leaders.