The north-east Delhi riots in 2020 claimed 53 lives. The riots were primarily bought about by Hindu mobs attacking Muslims, causing destruction of property and many waves of bloodshed.
During the riots, four people namely Ashok, Shubham, Ajay and Jitender Kumar were accused of murdering two muslim men namely Ashfaq Hussain and Zakir. The alleged murders took place in Bijpuri on February 25, 2020, as the communal riots were knee deep.
However, in a new development the accused have been acquitted by a court, citing lack of substantial evidence to prove that the accused were part of riotous mob.
The two cases registered against the four men were heard by Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala. The court passed two seperate orders last week, which said that the prosecution were unable to prove the involvement of the accused in the murders of Zakir and Hussain.
“There is no evidence to even establish any of the accused being part of rioters at the given place and time. Therefore, all the accused persons are acquitted of all the charges alleged against them in this case,” the court has said, according to a report published in PTI.
The court, in the common observations, also said that the eyewitness in these two cases turned hostile and did not support the prosecution’s version of the cases.
Some circumstantial evidence was, however, recorded; which included call details record (CDR), swords, scissors, amd clothes worn by some of the accused persons, based on their alleged disclosure statements, it said.
A concrete conclusion could not be reached, solely based on CDR, about the presence of a certain person at a particular place, the court said.
“As far as swords and scissors recovered and relied upon by the prosecution is concerned, it is not that these weapons were found with remnants of the blood of the deceased, to show that they were the weapons through which deceased were killed,” the orders said, according to a report published in PTI.
According to the court, no forensic examination was conducted to prove that the clothes of the accused had bloodstains of the murdered.
It added that CCTV footage which apparently featured the accused persons as part of the unlawful assembly which murdered the two muslim men was not played in the court.
“Even in the form of circumstantial evidence, there is nothing on the record to establish the presence of accused persons among the rioters,” observed the court.
Therefore, the prosecution was not able to prove that it was the accused involved in the murders of the two muslim men, the court said.
The FIRs against the accused were registered at the Dayalpur police station. (With PTI inputs)