NEW DELHI: A city court has acquitted three persons of rioting and arson charges in a case related to the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, saying it was “not safe” to rely upon the testimonies of two police witnesses who had identified them.
Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala was hearing a case against Akram, Mohammed Furkan and Mohammed Irshad who were accused of being part of a riotous mob that set ablaze a bookshop near Shiv Vihar Tiraha on February 24, 2020.
“I find that it is not safe to rely upon the testimony of prosecution witness (PW) 2 (constable Pa wan Kumar) and PW 7 (constable Amit) to assume the presence of all the accused persons herein in the mob,” the judge said in a verdict pronounced on Tuesday.
“I find that charges levelled against all the three accused persons in this case are not proved beyond reasonable doubt. Hence, accused persons are acquitted of the charges in respect of the incident at the shop,” he added.
Though there was reliable evidence to prove that a riotous mob committed vandalism and arson, there were certain inconsistencies in the statements of the two constables, the court noted. It said that immediately after the incident, the duo did not make any statement or daily diary (DD) entry regarding having identified the accused persons. Both constables identified the accused persons after seeing a video clip only on March 6, 2020, the court said.
There was, however, no clarity regarding the specific video clip being seen by the constables, the court said.
It said though the two police officials vouched that they knew the accused persons and their workplaces before the incident, they did not lead the investigating officer (IO) to raid the places where they could be found.
Also, while the shop owner or complainant said he closed the bookstore around 2 pm on the day of the incident, the two police officials, who had reportedly been present since morning, denied having seen the shop open, the court said.
“Thus, there is no consistency regarding the actual scenario with respect to this shop in the testimony of the complainant and PW2,” the court said.
CAA riots
On the eve of February 23, 2020 riots broke out in Northeast Delhi between Anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and pro-CAA protestors. The violence took a communal turn and led to the death of over 53 people over the course of next 10 days. More than 200 were left injured. Shops and houses were burnt down and even places of worship were attacked.