'Developed Common Intention To Kill During Riotous Clashes Between Communities': Delhi Court Frames Charges Against 5 For Murder, Rioting

A Delhi Court has framed charges against 5 men for unlawful assembly, rioting and murder of one Zakir during the North East Delhi riots. It observed that they developed a common intention to kill him while riotous clashes happened between Hindu and Muslim community.

Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhatt framed charges against all accused persons under Sections 144 (Joining unlawful assembly armed with deadly weapon), 147 (Rioting), 148 (Rioting, armed with deadly weapon) and 149 (Unlawful Assembly) and added Section 302 (Murder) r/w 34 against four of them.

"It appears that the accused developed the common intention to kill the accused at the spur of the moment during the riotous clashes between their community and the person belonging to another community," the Court said.

The Court however was of the view that the charge of criminal conspiracy was not made against the accused persons as the material on record did not indicate any prior agreement between them to kill Zakir, which is the sine qua non for the charge of conspiracy.

"Thus the material on record prima­ facie discloses commission of offence of rioting, murder etc. by the accused. It is evident that if the evidence collected during the course of investigation and annexed to the charge­sheet remains unrebutted the conviction of the accused is reasonably possible. No case for their discharge has been made out," the Judge added.

The prosecution heavily relied on an eye witness namely Shashikant Kashyap, CCTV footage captured and the CDRs of the mobile phone of the witness as well as the accused which showed their location near the place of incident.

Relying on the statement of witness, the Court was of the view:

"Had he not been present at the spot of incident and had he not witnessed the incident as stated by him, he would not have made any call at telephone number 100. In view of the same and also considering the manner in which he has narrated the entire incident in which four members of Muslim community including Zakir were killed, it is difficult to accept at this stage that he was not present near crime spot and had not witnessed the killings."

The Court added that the electronic evidence produced alongwith charge­sheet showed presence of the accused persons at the place of incident and in the the mob.

Accordingly, charges were framed in the matter.

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