NEW DELHI: A court here on Tuesday framed charges against a man for allegedly being part of an unlawful assembly and rioting in north east Delhi in February last year.
Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat said there are grounds for presuming that accused Suresh had committed offences under sections 143 (punishment for unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 427 (mischief), 454 (lurking house trespass) of the Indian Penal Code read with section 149 (unlawful assembly) and section 395 (dacoity) IPC.
The offences entail a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
The court noted that Head Constable Sunil, who was the beat constable in the area, had identified Suresh as part of the rioters who had allegedly damaged and looted a shop in Welcome area because it was owned by a Muslim.
It said even the owner of the shop had identified him to be allegedly a part of the rioters and who was angrily shouting to destroy the shutter and loot the shop.
"Thus, as per the statement of public witness Bhagat Singh and HC Sunil, accused Suresh was part of the unlawful assembly which were armed with 'lathies' and 'sariyas' and formed an unlawful assembly and committed rioting and used force in prosecution of that common object of that rioting, they broke open the shutter and locks of the shop of the complainant Asif, owned by Bhagat Singh, to commit theft and committed offence under Section 454 IPC.
"They also committed mischief as a result and committed the dacoity of the articles lying inside the shop, as per the complaint of the complainant Asif, thereby committing offence under section 395 IPC," the court said in its order.
Communal violence had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 last year after clashes between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.