India News | 2020 Delhi Riots: Court Acquits 5 of Murder, Criminal Conspiracy
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. A Delhi court has acquitted five men accused of murder during the February 2020 riots.
New Delhi, Apr 4 (PTI) A Delhi court has acquitted five men accused of murder during the February 2020 riots.
Additional sessions judge Pulastya Pramachala in an order passed on April 3, found "no evidence" to connect the accused persons with the incident.
Other charges are not maintainable, he added.
The court acquitted Kuldeep, Deepak Yadav, Deepak Thakur, Mohammed Furkan and Mohammed Irshad of all the charges.
One Salman was allegedly murdered by a mob, however, in the court's opinion the investigating officer (IO) hadn't found the real culprit.
The five men were charged with the offence for allegedly being part of the mob that killed Salman.
"It is important for the prosecution to show that the alleged act was done by the members of that mob in pursuance to the common object of that mob and accused was member of such mob at the relevant time," the court said.
Going by the prosecution's theory, the court noted the presence of two mobs comprising members of two different faiths and confronting each other at Shiv Vihar Tiraha on February 24, 2020.
Their common object was to inflict damage upon the rival mob and not on their own members, it noted.
"Therefore, the stand taken by IO in the chargesheet to prosecute members of both rival mobs for culpable homicide of Salman cannot be accepted to be in consonance with the law," it held.
The case's conclusion by the police showed that the actual rioters involved in the alleged murder could not be traced, the court said, and if Delhi Police was unable to find the real culprit it ought to have filed an untrace report.
"Suffice to say that prosecution of all the accused persons in this case, for culpable homicide of Salman, was not based on correct appreciation of law," it said.
There was no evidence against the accused persons to connect them in any manner, either in individual capacity or as members of the group of rioters with the incident of gunfire at Salman, it added.
The order said none of the prosecution witnesses deposed about the incident of Salman's murder.
The court also binned the evidence through video footages, saying they failed to show the involvement of the accused persons in connection with the alleged murder.
"Their (five accused) appearance in the video of riot or mob at any other place, cannot be helpful to prove charges in this case," it said.
The court said though the case also attracted criminal conspiracy charges, the record was "totally silent" on evidence to support the allegations.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)