New Delhi, Jul 27 (PTI) A Delhi court Monday dismissed bail pleas of three persons, arrested in a case related to the alleged murder of a person during the communal violence in northeast Delhi in February.

Dilbar Negi (22) died due to burn injuries when the mob set Anil Sweets shop on fire during the riots in Shiv Vihar area. He was present in the godown of the shop at that time.

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Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav rejected the bail applications of Ashraf Ali, Mohd Faisal, Rashid saying their release at this stage may hamper the ongoing investigation in the case.

"The riots at the scene of crime were really horrific; wherein, loss of innocent life as well as damage to the property of general public was enormous; the further investigation in the matter is on and a number of suspects who participated in the riots at the scene of crime have to be arrested and the release of applicant at this stage may hamper the further investigation...," the court said in its order.

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The court, however, clarified that anything stated in the order should not be construed as expressing any opinion on the final merits of the case, as the matter was at the pre-cognisance stage.

It added that it was conscious of the fact that eyewitnesses in the matter were residents of the same locality and were presumably still frightened.

The possibility of the accused threatening them, if released on bail cannot be ruled out, the court said.

It said that though the court has its limitations in making in-depth analysis of the statements of witnesses at the pre-cognisance stage, a joint reading of the statements of four prosecution witnesses made it amply clear that Ali, Faisal  and Rashid were present in the unlawful assembly, whose objective can be deciphered from the kind of weapons they were carrying and from the acts of arsoning, looting, vandalism and torching committed by them, which has been captured in the CCTV footage.

The court said it was prima facie clear that they were part of unlawful assembly which was responsible for putting on fire the godown in which Negi was present.

During the hearing held through video conferencing, advocates Sri Singh and Abdul Gaffar, appearing for the three persons, told the court that there was an inordinate delay of about four days in registration of FIR in the case. the police had dailed to produice any incriminating material against the accused for commission of offence of murder.

Special Public Prosecutor Manoj Chaudhary, appearing for the state, opposed the bail applications saying the three persons were present at the spot and had indulged in acts of rioting, arson, stone pelting including setting fire upon the godown of the shop.

Faisal was clearly visible in the CCTV footage of the scene of crime on February 24, the public prosecutor said.

Twelve persons have been charge sheeted in the case filed on June 4 under various offences of rioting, murder, unlawful assembly, promoting enmity between groups based on religion, caste, language etc.

The offences entail a maximum punishment of death penalty.

Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.

(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)