NEW DELHI: A city court has acquitted 12 persons in a 2020 northeast riots case related to an alleged murder, saying that criminal liability cannot be fastened on a person merely because he was a member of an unlawful assembly without proof of his individual acts.
Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh acquitted Lokesh Solanki, Pankaj Sharma, Ankit Chaudhary, Prince, Jatin Sharma, Himanshu Thakur, Vivek Panchal, Rishabh Chaudhary, Sumit Chaudhary, Tinku Arora, Sandeep and Sahil.
The court noted that prosecution’s principal witness turned hostile during trial. Despite extensive cross-examination, nothing emerged from his testimony, it said. It also rejected prosecution’s reliance on a police witness who could not identify the persons in the mob.