North East Delhi riots: Court charges 4 accused for damaging, setting vehicles on fire

New Delhi [India], August 19 : A Delhi court charged four people for damaging and setting fire to vehicles that were parked by the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) near the Ambedkar College during the North East Delhi riots in February 2020.
This case pertains to a First information report (FIR) registered at Jyoti Nagar police station.
Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat of Karkardooma District Court said, "I am of the opinion that there are grounds for presuming that the accused persons Shahrukh alias Rinku, Ashwani alias Kale, Ashu, and Juber have committed offences under Section 147/148/188/427/436 Indian Penal Code (IPC) read with section 149 IPC."
On the other hand, the Court discharged two accused Kasim and Khalid Ansari of all the offences in this case.
The Court said that it has come on record that on 25 February 2020 at about 4.30 pm a riotous mob (unlawful assembly) consisting of 100-250 rioters including the accused persons Shahrukh, Ashwani, Ashu and Juber armed with "dandas" (sticks) petrol bottles and canes had entered into the MCD parking near Ambedkar College, Delhi which was being run by complainant Kirti Raj Tiwari and committed mischief and destruction by fire of the vehicles and rehris (small cart) inside the said parking by the unlawful assembly in prosecution of the common object, thus, attracting section 147 IPC (Punishment for Rioting), section 148 IPC (Rioting, armed with deadly weapon), section 427 IPC (Mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) and section 436 IPC (Mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy building used as a place for the custody of property) read with section 149 IPC (unlawful assembly).
The accused are also facing charges from the court for allegedly breaking section 144 CrPC prohibitory orders and violating Section 188 of IPC's criminal code.
The complaint under Section 195 of CrPC was also filed, the court order of August 18, 2022, read.
Kirti Raj Tiwari filed a written complaint on March 2, 2020, in which he said that he runs an MCD.
At around 2:00 pm on February 25, 2020, while he was present in his parking, 100 to 250 rioters broke in and began looting and setting fire to the tractors and rehris.
He claimed that once he dialled the police's 100 number and they arrived, the rioters fled.
The following day, around 4:30 pm, the rioters returned and set fire to the parking lot, destroying six tractors and between 55 and 60 fruit rehris.
Additionally, he claimed that the rioters ransacked a school bus close to the dispensary and burned horse carriages on the service road nearby.
According to the charge sheet, on March 8, 2020, the accused were arrested near Kardampuri after obtaining top-secret information. Two white plastic canes that smelled like gasoline were found in Shahrukh's case.
On March 19, 2020, Head Constable Vinay Kumar identified Kasimon on the basis of CCTV Footage. The statements of Chuttan Hafeez, Sadiq, Mansoor Ali, Irshad, Abrar were recorded on March 2, 2020.
During the argument of charge, the counsel for the accused had argued that the present case is fit for discharge as the accused persons are not named in the FIR and they were arrested later on.
They rejected the defence attorney's argument, arguing that the FIR is not an encyclopaedia but rather the starting point of an investigation and that the prosecution's case is not at all undermined by the fact that the accused were not named in the FIR, especially during the time of the riots.
According to the complainant's testimony dated March 2, 2020, he knows some of the individuals responsible for the rioting that took place on February 25, 2020, in the parking lot of the EDMC.
He also mentioned the names of three other accused -- Ashwani, Ashu, and Juber-- who frequently use drugs in his parking lot, as well as accused Shahrukh, who used to park his car there.