NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Friday showed leniency towards a man who pleaded guilty for harbouring Shahrukh Pathan, who had absconded after allegedly pointing a gun at a policeman during the northeast Delhi riots last year, and sentenced him to a period already undergone by him in the jail.
Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat said convict Kaleem Ahmed showed remorse, prayed for leniency and pleaded having been misled by Pathan.
He said while the maximum sentence that can be awarded is three years, the convict has already suffered imprisonment from March 17, 2020 to September 7, 2021.
"Considering family status of convict, his whole individual position, the factum of his voluntary plea of guilt and the fact that his apparent act of contrition deserves to be taken at face value to give another chance to him to reform himself and considering his role and the offence, the convict is sentenced to the period already undergone by him and also to a fine of Rs 2,000," the judge ordered.
"The court, indubitably, regards the action/conduct of the convict Kaleem Ahmed as reprehensible and indictable. The investigation and evidence collected by the Crime Branch, Delhi Police, so far as the convict is concerned, is praiseworthy," he added.
This is the first sentencing in any of the February 2020 riots cases.
Ahmed was convicted for the offence under Section 216 IPC (harbouring an offender who has escaped from custody) of IPC on December 7 after he pleaded guilty.
During the arguments, advocate Bilal Khan, representing the 29-year-old convict, apprised the court that Ahmed is poor, sole bread-earner, has nine dependents, the father is paralysed, and that he has already served one-and-a-half years in jail.
Ahmed, who was a motor mechanic by profession, also submitted that he was misled by Pathan.
Special Public Prosecutor Anuj Handa, representing the police, had however prayed for a maximum sentence of three years.
Pathan had allegedly aimed a pistol at Delhi Police Head Constable Deepak Dahiya with an "intention to kill" him in February 2020.
After photographs of this incident went viral on social media, Pathan absconded and was nabbed from the bus stand of Shamli district in Uttar Pradesh on March 3, 2020.
He is currently lodged in Tihar Jail.
Police claimed that Pathan after absconding took shelter at Ahmed's house at Shamli which, they said, is corroborated by their mobile phone locations.
Pathan stayed at Ahmed's house from the night of February 26-27 to March 3.
Ahmed had also helped the riot accused in purchasing a new mobile phone, the police said.
Meanwhile, five other accused in the case, including Pathan, pleaded not guilty to the charges and claimed trial.
Charges of rioting and attempt to murder have been framed against Pathan.
ASJ Rawat noted that "intention to kill" the policeman was clearly made out from the statement given by Dahiya that Pathan aimed at his head and fired but he managed to escape.
Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi in February 2020, after violence between the Citizenship (Amendment) Act supporters and its protesters spiralled out of control, leaving at least 53 people dead and over 700 injured.