Delhi Court acquits 11 in 2020 riots case over lack of evidence

A Delhi court has acquitted 11 men accused of arson and theft charges in a February 2020 riots' case for want of evidence.

Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala observed the two police witnesses who identified the accused persons in the case appeared to be "artificial eyewitnesses".

The prosecution alleged the accused persons were involved in theft, vandalism and arson in some shops on the intervening night of February 24 and 25, 2020.

In an order dated May 14, the court said the core issue in the matter was the identification of the accused persons comprising the mob involved in the crime.

The two police witnesses, the court noted, posted in the same police station, identified the photographs of the accused persons after a 10-month gap.

“If prosecution witness (PW) 9, assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Jahangir and PW 10, ASI Vanvir, had actually seen and identified the accused persons among the rioters on February 24, 2020, then there was no good reason for them to keep silent for such a long period,” the court said.

The investigating officer was said to have known that the two police officials were on duty at the spot, but he did not examine them.

“Showing photographs of the accused to PW 9, when they were already arrested in this case, appears to be an unnatural action, giving the impression that PW9 was artificially made an eyewitness to identify the accused persons," the order said.

The court, as a result, discarded the witness testimony.

The statement of another witness, namely, Aslam, who identified the accused in court for the first time though he had in fact known them from before was termed "suspicious" by the court.

The order held that the charges against the accused persons were not proved beyond a reasonable doubt and acquitted Ankit Chaudhary, Sumit, Pappu, Vijay, Ashish Kumar, Sourabh Kaushik, Bhupender, Shakti Singh, Sachin Kumar, Rahul and Yogesh.