Delhi court acquits ten men in Delhi riots case

A Delhi court recently acquitted 10 accused in a case related to the North-east Delhi riots of 2020..Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Pulastya Pramachala of Karkardooma Courts said that allegations against the accused were not proven beyond reasonable doubt.“In view of my foregoing discussions, observations and findings, I find that charges levelled against all the accused persons in this case are not proved beyond reasonable doubts. Hence, accused Mohd. Shahnawaz @ Shanu, Mohd. Shoaib @ Chhutwa, Shahrukh, Rashid @ Raja, Azad, Ashraf Ali, Parvej, Md. Faisal, Rashid @ Monu and Mohd Tahir, are given benefit of doubt and they are acquitted of all the charges levelled against them in this case,” the Court ordered on September 11. .The allegation was that the accused had entered a house in the Gokulpuri area of Delhi during the riots and set fire to the property. It was also alleged that the rioters stole gold and silver jewellery from the house along with ₹2 lakh in cash..After considering the case, the Court ruled that an unlawful assembly had attacked the property and indulged in a riotous act but there were certain witnesses whose genuineness was under doubt.The Court said that while the probe could have been delayed due to the riots and COVID-19, that cannot be an excuse when it came to the genuineness of the claims made by the police and eye-witnesses."I can understand that due to ongoing other problems in the form of managing after effect of riots and Covid-19, there could have been delay in going ahead with investigation. However, the artificiality of claim, is different thing which creates doubt regarding genuineness of the claim made by IO and aforesaid police eye-witnesses. PW1, PW2 and PW3 did not support the case of prosecution on the aspect of identification of accused persons," the Court stated.In view of the above, it proceeded to acquit the accused.“Thus, the overall effect remains that I find it unsafe to rely upon the evidence of PW6, PW9 and PW13, to believe that all the accused persons were part of the mob, which had attacked upon the property of PW1,” the judge held..[Read Judgment]