India
Delhi riots 2020: Court acquits 10 men of riots, arson | India News – Times of India
NEW DELHI: A court here has acquitted 10 men of various charges, including unlawful assembly and arson, in a case related to the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, saying it was not safe to rely on the testimonies of three police witnesses. The court also observed that the “artificiality of the claim” of the investigating officer (IO) and three police witnesses created doubt over their identification of the accused persons.
Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala was hearing the case against the 10 accused against whom the Gokalpuri police station had registered a case for various offences, including arson and trespassing.
According to the Public Prosecution Service, the suspects were part of a riotous crowd that destroyed and set fire to a pizzeria on the ground floor, in addition to entering the premises and committing a robbery on the first floor of a building in the Chaman Park neighborhood in Briepuri here during the riots of February 24, 2020.
In a ruling Wednesday examining the evidence, the court found that two eyewitnesses in the case had taken “conflicting positions” about the store being set alight by a rioting mob, undermining their credibility.
The court took cognizance of the statement of Head Inspector Sanjay about his duty with Constable Vipin and Assistant Inspector Hari Babu. According to the duty roster for that day, Vipin and Babu were assigned to Chaman Park, while Sanjay was assigned to Johripur.
However, there was no evidence that Sanjay was ordered to join the two other police officers, the court said.
“There is thus a gap in the prosecution’s evidence that presents a contradictory picture. This gap adversely affects the credibility of the claims of all three aforementioned eyewitnesses,” the report said.
The court also noted the contradiction in the statement of Inspector Manoj, the Third Investigating Officer (IO) in the case. According to him, after perusing the case file on April 8, 2020, he came to know that Sanjay, Vipin and Babu were on duty in Brijpuri area.
However, according to the evidence before the court, the duty roster was not included in the file when it was handed over to the IO on April 7, the court said.
“The question is that if the duty roster was not on file, how could he have known about the duty of PW6 (Vipin), PW9 (Sanjay) and PW13 (Babu) on the basis of an analysis of the file? There therefore appears to be an element of artificiality in such a claim,” the judge said.
“I can understand that due to the ongoing challenges in terms of managing the aftermath of the riots and COVID-19, there may have been a delay in proceeding with the investigation. However, the artificiality of the claim is a different story, which casts doubt on the authenticity of the claim of the IO and the aforementioned police witnesses,” he added.
The court noted that the complainant, Narender Kumar, his wife Poonam Johar and eyewitness Shyam were declared hostile as they did not support the prosecution’s claim regarding identification of the accused.
“The overall effect remains that I find it unsafe to rely on the evidence of PW6, PW9 and PW13 to believe that all the accused were part of the gang that attacked the premises,” the judge said, adding: “I am of the opinion that the charges against all the accused have not been proved beyond reasonable doubt.”
The court acquitted the ten suspects – Mohammed Shahnawaz, Mohammed Shoaib, Mohammed Faisal, Mohammed Tahir, Shahrukh, Rashid, Azad, Ashraf Ali, Parvez and Rashid – of all charges.
Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala was hearing the case against the 10 accused against whom the Gokalpuri police station had registered a case for various offences, including arson and trespassing.
According to the Public Prosecution Service, the suspects were part of a riotous crowd that destroyed and set fire to a pizzeria on the ground floor, in addition to entering the premises and committing a robbery on the first floor of a building in the Chaman Park neighborhood in Briepuri here during the riots of February 24, 2020.
In a ruling Wednesday examining the evidence, the court found that two eyewitnesses in the case had taken “conflicting positions” about the store being set alight by a rioting mob, undermining their credibility.
The court took cognizance of the statement of Head Inspector Sanjay about his duty with Constable Vipin and Assistant Inspector Hari Babu. According to the duty roster for that day, Vipin and Babu were assigned to Chaman Park, while Sanjay was assigned to Johripur.
However, there was no evidence that Sanjay was ordered to join the two other police officers, the court said.
“There is thus a gap in the prosecution’s evidence that presents a contradictory picture. This gap adversely affects the credibility of the claims of all three aforementioned eyewitnesses,” the report said.
The court also noted the contradiction in the statement of Inspector Manoj, the Third Investigating Officer (IO) in the case. According to him, after perusing the case file on April 8, 2020, he came to know that Sanjay, Vipin and Babu were on duty in Brijpuri area.
However, according to the evidence before the court, the duty roster was not included in the file when it was handed over to the IO on April 7, the court said.
“The question is that if the duty roster was not on file, how could he have known about the duty of PW6 (Vipin), PW9 (Sanjay) and PW13 (Babu) on the basis of an analysis of the file? There therefore appears to be an element of artificiality in such a claim,” the judge said.
“I can understand that due to the ongoing challenges in terms of managing the aftermath of the riots and COVID-19, there may have been a delay in proceeding with the investigation. However, the artificiality of the claim is a different story, which casts doubt on the authenticity of the claim of the IO and the aforementioned police witnesses,” he added.
The court noted that the complainant, Narender Kumar, his wife Poonam Johar and eyewitness Shyam were declared hostile as they did not support the prosecution’s claim regarding identification of the accused.
“The overall effect remains that I find it unsafe to rely on the evidence of PW6, PW9 and PW13 to believe that all the accused were part of the gang that attacked the premises,” the judge said, adding: “I am of the opinion that the charges against all the accused have not been proved beyond reasonable doubt.”
The court acquitted the ten suspects – Mohammed Shahnawaz, Mohammed Shoaib, Mohammed Faisal, Mohammed Tahir, Shahrukh, Rashid, Azad, Ashraf Ali, Parvez and Rashid – of all charges.
