North-East Delhi riots: Court acquits 3 accused of rioting, burning bookshop, discredits testimony of police witnesses

New Delhi [India], January 23 : Delhi's Karkardooma Court on Tuesday acquitted three accused of rioting and burning a bookshop during riots in the Dayal Pur area of North-East Delhi in February 2020.
The court acquitted them giving the benefit of doubt as their presence had not been established.
While acquitting the accused persons, identified as Akram, Mohd Furkaan, and Mohd Irshad, the court discredited the testimonies of two police witnesses who claimed to have seen the accused persons in a riotous mob during the incidents.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Pulastya Pramachala held, "I find that charges levelled against all three accused in this case are not proved beyond reasonable doubts."
"Hence, accused Akram, Mohd Furkan, and Mohd Irshad are acquitted of the charges in respect of the incident at the shop, namely "Chawla Book Centre," situated at Shiv Vihar Tiraha," the court said in the judgement passed on January 23, 2024.
On the point of the presence of accused persons in the riotous mob, the court discredited the testimonies of two police constables.
"I find that it is not safe to rely upon the testimony of Constable Pawan Kumar and Constable Amit to assume the presence of all the accused persons in the mob, which was behind the incident at the shop of Gulshan Kumar," ASJ Pramachala said.
The judge made a one-liner statement to mention that these two witnesses had seen
the accused persons in the incident at the shop, is not sufficient to inspire confidence.
"At the same time, there is a gap in the evidence of prosecution to show as to which particular video was seen by these two witnesses to identify the accused persons,"ASJ Pramachala pointed out.
The court further said that both of these witnesses vouched that they knew the accused persons and their workplace prior to the incident. However, even after giving their statement before the IO, they did not lead the IO to the respective places of these accused persons.
The present FIR was registered on March 4, 2020, on the basis of a written complaint dated March 1, 2020, given by one Gulshan Kumar.
In his complaint, he alleged that on February 24, 2020, his 20-year'-old shop under the name and style of "Chawla Book Centre," situated near Rajdhani Secondary School, Shiv Vihar Tiraha, was set on fire during a riot.
The complainant further alleged that all the articles of his aforesaid shop were burned, and he suffered losses of approximately Rs 8-10 lakh.
After completion of the investigation, on June 17, 2020, a charge sheet was filed against accused Akram, Mohd Furkan, and Mohd Irshad for offences punishable under Section 147/148/149/427/435/436/120-B IPC.