North East Delhi violence: Court discharges 10 people accused of setting car on fire

New Delhi [India], September 29 : A Delhi Court on Thursday discharged 10 people accused of arson charges during the North East Delhi riots in February 2020.
The case pertains to the burning of a car parked on a public road in the Jafrabad area. The court observed that the car was not parked in a building at the time of the incident.
Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat discharged 10 accused of the offence under section 436 ( mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy a property used for worship, for human dwelling, or for the custody of property) IPC and remanded the matter back to the magistrate court for further hearing.
The present case was registered on the complaint of Talwinder Singh on February 27, 2020. He stated that he is a driver and on February 24, 2020, at around 6.00 pm, he parked his vehicle at Ghonda, Noore Ilahi, Yamuna Vihar Road.
It was stated that the said vehicle was parked on the road and on the next day when he went out of the house at about 7.30 pm, he saw that his vehicle with vehicle documents was completely burnt down.
"Section 436 IPC is attracted only when mischief is committed for the destruction of any building which is ordinarily used as a place of worship or human dwelling or as a place for the custody of the property, the court said in the order passed on September 28, 2022.
The Court said," Any movable property like vehicle which lies on a public road and is burnt is not sufficient to invoke Section 436 IPC as the public road does not exclusively belong to Talwinder Singh."
Thus, it is not the house of Talwinder Singh or vehicles inside his/any house, which was burnt but only the vehicle which was lying parked on a public road, the court added.
The court said that the offence under Section 436 IPC is not made out.
Accordingly, all ten (10) accused persons namely Md. Saleem, Mehrajuddin,
Shoaib, Haji Islam, Anish Malik, Arif Saifi, Shanu Malik, Bobby, Furkan and Md.Salman alias Chand Babu is discharged under Section 436 IPC.
The judge directed all the accused persons to appear before the concerned court on October 12, 2022, at 2.00 PM.
Accused persons namely Mohd. Saleem, Mehrajuddin and Shoaib, had been already
arrested in other cases of police station Jafrabad based on CCTV footage. They made a disclosure of their involvement and were formally arrested from Mandoli Jail in this case on April 6, 2020.
The Statements of witnesses Jaiveer Singh, HC Satpal Singh, Raj Kumar and
Chander Prakash Maheshwari was also recorded. Witnesses along with the complainant had identified the accused persons.
In this matter, police had filed a charge sheet and two supplementary charge sheets under sections related to riots, unlawful assembly, arson etc.