NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has acquitted nine men in a case related to the 2020 Delhi riots, saying that the testimonies cannot be relied upon in the case as they lacked specificity and were general in nature.
Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh was hearing the case against nine persons identified as Shah Alam, Rashid Saifi, Mohammad Shadab, Habib, Irfan, Suhail, Salim alias Ashu, Irshad, and Azhar alias Sonu arrested in a loot and arson case linked to the northeast Delhi riots.
In a March 30 order, the court said, “Testimonies are general in nature and lack specificity, especially in view of the fact that these witnesses have deposed falsely with regard to the place of incident... I find that it will be unsafe to rely upon the testimonies of these witnesses to convict the accused.”
Noting contradictions in the testimonies of eyewitnesses, the court said that the investigating officer recorded the wrong date of incident.
“The witness was so categorical and insistent about the fact that a wrong date of incident had been projected by the police that he had approached the DCP of the area along with a representation that the IO had wrongly recorded the date of incident,” the judge said.
Regarding an attack on a news channel vehicle, the court noted that the driver and passenger identified a location and time that completely contradicted the police’s site plan and the testimonies of police witnesses.
“Testimonies of constable Gyan Singh and head constable Sunil are found to be completely false,” the judge stated, noting that the incident actually happened at a place far from where police claimed. The court noted that it would be unsafe to rely on their testimonies to convict the accused for alleged acts of rioting.