Court Acquits Four Men For Lack Of Evidence In Delhi Riots Case

A Delhi Court on Friday acquitted four men of all charges levelled against them by Delhi Police in a case connected to the 2020 North-East Delhi riots. 

Giving the accused a benefit of doubt, Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala acquitted Mohd. Shahnawaz, Mohd. Shoaib, Shahrukh and Rashid of all charges under Sections 143, 147, 148, 149, 454, 435 and 436 of Indian Penal Code, 1860.

The judge observed that the sole testimony of a constable (prosecution witness), who stated that he had seen the accused persons in the mob, cannot be sufficient to assume their presence in the mob, which allegedly had set ablaze a shop and vehicle of one Ravi Shankar, a Karawal Nagar resident.

"In the present case, PW9 (constable) stated that incident at Shop A-53 took place after midnight, though PW7 (head constable) mentioned the time of around 2 PM. There is mark difference in the testimony of these two witnesses, regarding the number of persons assembled at that place," the judge said.

In his complaint, Shankar had alleged that on February 26, 2020, he found the shutter of his shop and articles kept inside it in burnt condition. He also alleged that his vehicle meant for supplying cold drinks was also in burnt condition.

The two primary witnesses in the case were a constable and a head constable, who said that a mob had assembled near Chaman Park, Johripur Shiv Vihar Road and indulged into vandalism and arson. The court said the foremost question is whether the accused persons were part of that mob.

Coming to the head constable's testimony, the court said though he vouched about being on duty with the constable, he could not identify all the accused before the court. The judge recorded that the same witness was examined in other case and therein he stated that he could not identify any of the "rioters" due to long lapse of time.

"The accused in FIR 40/20 were the same persons. PW7 (head constable) thereafter, took plea that he was suffering from memory loss and was also taking medicine for the same. He was cross examined by ld. prosecutor, wherein he admitted the suggestion that he was unable to identify four rioters correctly because of memory loss. Thus, for whatever reasons PW7 did not identify the rioters, it is for sure that identification of one of the accused by him in this case, is also not safe to be relied upon," said the ASJ.

Regarding the other remaining witness - the constable (PW9), the court said he remains the only witness to prove the identity of accused persons. The defence called him a planted and tutored witness.

The judge said he only stated that he knew some members of the mob but did not state "about any overt act of the accused persons".

It thus said: "In view of my foregoing discussions, observations and findings, I find that charges levelled against the accused persons in this case are not proved beyond doubts. Hence, accused Mohd. Shahnawaz @ Shanu, Mohd. Shoaib @ Chhutwa, Shahrukh and Rashid @ Raja, are acquitted of all the charges levelled against them in this case."

The accused were represented by advocates Salim Malik and Z. Babar Chauhan. Public Prosecutor Nitin Rai Sharma represented the police.

#DelhiRiots

Delhi Court acquits four men namely Mohd. Shahnawaz, Mohd. Shoaib, Shahrukh and Rashid of all the charges, giving them benefit of doubt. 

Court says sole testimony of a constable (witness) cannot be sufficient to assume their presence in the riotous mob. pic.twitter.com/H5bMXatRfx

— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) November 18, 2022