[24] The riots had their origin in Jaffrabad, in North East Delhi, where a sit-in by women against India's Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 had been in progress on a stretch of the Seelampur–Jaffrabad–Maujpur road, blocking it.

[29][30] On 23 February 2020, a leader of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, Kapil Mishra, called for Delhi Police to clear the roads, failing which he threatened to "hit the streets".

[34] Rioters wearing helmets and carrying sticks, stones, swords or pistols, and the saffron flags of Hindu nationalism entered Muslim neighbourhoods, as the police stood by.

[36][37] Chants were heard of "Jai Shri Ram" ("Victory to Lord Rama"), a religious slogan favoured by prime minister Narendra Modi's party.

[17] In the neighbourhood of Shiv Vihar, Hindu rioters attacked Muslim houses and businesses for three days, often firebombing them with cooking gas cylinders and gutting them without resistance from the police.

[39] During this time, stories were also told of Sikh and Hindu families coming to the aid of besieged Muslims;[40] in some neighbourhoods, the religious communities cooperated in protecting themselves from violence.

[35][42] India's national security advisor, Ajit Doval, visited the area; the prime minister, Narendra Modi, made an appeal for peace on Twitter.

[49] Protests began across India in December 2019 in response to the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), which allows fast-tracked naturalisation for immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan belonging to six religions vis-à-vis Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Jainism and Buddhism.

[61] On 23 February between 3.30 p.m. and 4 p.m., BJP leader Kapil Mishra and his supporters reached a protest site at Maujpur Chowk "to give an answer to Jaffrabad [blockade]".

[102] People wielding sticks and iron rods were reported to be roaming streets in the areas of Bhajanpura, Chand Bagh and Karawal Nagar localities.

[129] The neighbourhood between Jaffrabad and Maujpur, which has a mixed population of Hindus and Muslims, demonstrated unity by guarding one another and barricading the gate to prevent outside mobs from entering and destroying the communal harmony that exists there.

[136][137][138] A Sikh father-son duo rescued around seventy Muslims from a mosque and a madrasa that were surrounded by a mob, by transporting them to safety on their motorcycle, giving safe passage to two children at a time.

They remained lax in deploying policemen on 23 February, when multiple intelligence reports requested more forces to prevent the tense situation (created by Mishra's speech) from escalating further.

[146] A video shared on social media on 26 February showed a group of men being assaulted by the police as they lay on the ground, forcibly singing the national anthem of India and "Vande Mataram" on the demands of the policemen.

[155] The Jan Swasthya Abhiyaan (JSA), a public health advocacy group, compiled a report on the information gathered by their volunteers working in the hospitals during the riots.

[92] The concerns were raised by Kejriwal in the subsequent meeting chaired by Home Minister Shah and attended by Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal and senior police officials.

Singh accused Home Minister Amit Shah of holding an "all-party meeting, pretending to restore peace and their MLA is engaged in inciting riots."

[170][171][172][173] On 26 February, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) conveyed "grave concern" over the riots and requested the Indian government to provide protection to people, no matter which faith they belonged to.

In response, on 27 February 2020, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, Raveesh Kumar, stated that these remarks were "factually inaccurate", "misleading" and "aimed at politicising the issue".

[177] On 27 February, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, stated, "Indians in huge numbers, and from all communities, have expressed—in a mostly peaceful manner—their opposition to the Act, and support for the country's long tradition of secularism".

They expressed fear that India's failure to handle the situation could create a volatile environment in its neighbouring countries, which could destroy peace, democracy, development and communal harmony in the region.

[195] In 2022, an unnammed woman and a man named Munjtajim was arrested for Ratan Lal and Intelligence Bureau officer Ankit Sharma's murder respectively.

[199][200] Activists Harsh Mander and Farah Naqvi filed a plea in the Delhi High Court, demanding that the police report and arrest those involved in the violence on 25 February.

[203][204][205] In the hearing during the morning, DCP of crime branch, Rajesh Deo, and the Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, surprised the court by admitting that they had not watched the video of the inflammatory speech given by Kapil Mishra.

The court noted that the main objective of the convicts who joined the unruly mob guided by ‘communal feelings’ was to cause ‘maximum damage to the properties belonging to the people of the Hindu community'.

[14] Even in areas of Delhi which were not affected by the violence, many Muslim families packed up their belongings and left for their ancestral villages, showing no intention of ever coming back.

[228] As of October 2020[update], many Muslim survivors of the riots reported harassment and humiliation within their immediate neighbourhoods and many even started selling their properties below the market price so as escape from this ordeal.

"it has been a pattern in almost all the anti-Muslim violence in India that to call it “communal riots” in order to avoid the supposed blame over the perpetrators from the Hindu fold as well as to narrate it in a balanced/neutral way as both the communities involved in it are occupying equal and parallel power.

[246] During a parliamentary debate over the riots on 11 March, Home Minister Amit Shah gave his condolences to the families of those who died due to the violence and assured them of justice.

This was in stark contrast to the report of 52 deaths and 3,304 arrests submitted by Junior Home Minister G. Kishan Reddy on 18 March, who had obtained the figures from the Delhi Police.