NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has ordered to frame rioting and murder charges against former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain and five others in a case related to the 2020 northeast Delhi riots. The court said all the accused indulged in targeting Hindus and their acts were apparently prejudicial to the harmony between Muslims and Hindus.
Besides Hussain, Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala also ordered the framing of charges against Tanvir Malik, Gulfam, Nazim, Kasim, and Shah Alam while hearing a case registered by Ajay Jha, who was allegedly shot at by a mob near Chand Bagh on February 25, 2020.
“I find all accused persons liable to be tried for offences punishable under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) read with Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with a deadly weapon), 153A (promoting enmity between classes), and 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code,” the judge said in an order dated October 13. The judge further ordered framing of charges under IPC Sections 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) and 307 (attempt to murder).
Special Public Prosecutor Madhukar Pandey clarified that the substantive offence was framed for the charge of attempt to murder. As the conspiracy was to murder, charges for the offence of criminal conspiracy read with murder and others were framed, Pandey said. The court noted that planning to ignite a communal riot and initiating measures to commit the act could be an umbrella conspiracy and those part of it may or may not be involved in each of the other conspiracies and vice versa.