“Ever since I got news that Kapil Mishra has become a minister, I have been considering moving out of Delhi,” said 57-year-old Mohammad Ilyas, laughing nervously. “Now I feel I am in danger.”

Ilyas is among the handful of citizens who approached the courts after police refused to register their complaints and file a first information report against Mishra for his alleged involvement in the riots that engulfed North East Delhi in February 2020. Fifty-three people died in the violence. The majority of them were Muslim.

During the riots, Justice S Muralidhar of the Delhi High Court had urged the Delhi police to consider registering first information reports against Mishra and other Bharatiya Janata Party leaders for inflammatory remarks that he said would qualify as hate speech. That very day, Muralidhar was transferred out of the Delhi High Court by the BJP-led Union government.

Five years later, Mishra is yet to be booked by the police for allegedly being involved in the riots. On the contrary, the controversy gave his political career a thrust. Last week, Mishra was appointed minister of law and justice in the Delhi government.

Many of those who had approached the courts seeking action against him have given up hope. Only a few patient petitioners are awaiting justice,...