2020 Delhi riots: Court acquits 6 accused of arson, robbery

New Delhi, Jul 26 (PTI) A Delhi court has acquitted six persons in a case related to the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, saying the prosecution has completely failed to prove its case against them.

Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh was hearing the case against the six men, who were accused of various penal offences, including unlawful assembly, rioting, robbery and arson.

In an order dated July 23, the judge said, "I find that there are serious discrepancies in the story of the prosecution which had emerged during the prosecution evidence, and the prosecution failed to explain them.

"Thus, I find that the prosecution has completely failed to prove its case against any of the accused persons for any of the charges that were framed against them. All the accused are accordingly acquitted of all the charges framed against them." In its 26-page order, the court said that there was a "serious contradiction" regarding the identity of the accused persons as part of the riotous mob involved in the incident.

It said that it was not clear how a prosecution witness - head constable Vipin Tomar - who had accompanied the investigating officer (IO) and apprehended the accused persons, established their identities.

"The testimony of PW5 (Tomar) further comes under a cloud of doubt by his conduct, when before the start of his testimony, he took the photographs of the accused in his phone, and not only that, he deleted them immediately, but the photographs were found in the deleted folder of the gallery of his phone," the court said.

It said even after it was established that the police witness had taken photos of the accused on the day of his testimony, he failed to explain his conduct.

"Therefore, an adverse inference has to be drawn that he had done so to ascertain their identity," the court said.

It also said that Tomar's credibility was weakened by some statements which were contradictory to the site plan prepared by the IO.

"Thus, I am of the considered opinion that it will be dangerous to rely upon the testimony of PW5 to reach at a conclusion that the accused were a part of the riotous mob, which was standing in violation of proclamation under Section 144 (prohibitory orders) of Code of Criminal Procedure or that they were the ones who had vandalized, looted and ransacked the shops or houses of Gulzar, Altaf, Irshad, Alka Gupta, Vikas Sharma and Satish Chand Sharma," the judge said.

ASJ Singh further said that none of the public witnesses had supported the case of the prosecution that the accused were a part of the riotous mob which had looted, vandalised and ransacked the shops or houses.

The Khajuri Khas police station had filed a charge sheet against the six accused persons - Rajendar Jha, Tejveer Chaudhary, Rajesh Jha, Govind Singh Manral, Peetamber Jha and Devendar Kumar alias Monu Pandit. PTI MNR ZMN