2 AAP MLAs held guilty of rioting, causing hurt to policemen by Delhi Court in 7-year-old case

New Delhi [India], September 12 : A Delhi court hearing cases against MPs and MLAs have recently convicted two AAP MLAs Akhilesh Pati Tripathi and Sanjiv Jha, along with 15 others of rioting and causing hurt to policemen in a 7 years-old case.
The case is related to an assembly and assault on police personnel at Burari Police station, Delhi in 2015.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Vaibhav Mehta held Tripathi and Jha and other accused in a case related to rioting and assault on police personnel.
"The court is of the view that the Prosecution has been able to establish that both the accused persons namely Sanjiv Jha and Akhilesh Pati Tripathi were present at the spot when the crowd turned violent and in fact had played a major role in provoking and instigating the crowd," the court said in a 149-page judgment passed on September 7.
The court convicted the accused persons of rioting, obstructing public servants, voluntary assaulting public servants while discharging an official duty, and unlawful assembly. However, the court acquitted them of the offense of criminal intimidation and damaging public property.
The Court noted that the prosecution witnesses in their testimonies were "consistent" and stated that both MLAs were present at the place and that they were not only "active participants but in fact, leading the crowd."
The court also observed, "Besides, the two MLAs provoked the mob as a part of a "common object of the unlawful assembly" in order to "teach police officials a lesson and to overawe the police by force".
The court will hear the arguments on the sentence of the convict persons on September 21.
Besides the two MLAs, other names accused by the court are, Balram Jha, Shyam Gopal Gupta, Kishore Kumar, Lalit Mishra, Jagdish Chandra Joshi, Narender Singh Rawat, Neeraj Pathak, Raju Malik, Ashok Kumar, Ravi Prakash Jha, Ismail Islam, Manoj Kumar, Vijay Pratap Singh, Heera Devi, and Yashwant.
However, the court also acquitted 10 other accused persons.
This case is related to an incident that occurred on the night of February 20, 2015, at Burari Police station during which the property was damaged and police personnel was beaten.
This incident happened after the mob demanded the custody of two persons arrested by the police and were in a police station.
It was alleged that the police had tried to pacify the crowd but the MLAs joined them. Thereafter the crowd resorted to stone pelting and attacked the policemen.
On the other hand, it was argued on behalf of the MLAs that they went to the police station to pacify the crowd and they were not instigating the crowd.