New Delhi : A Delhi court has framed charges of murder, rioting and criminal conspiracy against four accused in the incident, terming the alleged murder of a man during the riots last year as a planned attack. Anwar Hussain, Qasim, Shahrukh and Khalid Ansari are accused of allegedly brutally thrashing a man named Deepak to death near Ambedkar College on February 25, 2020. According to the post-mortem report, he died due to hemorrhagic stroke.
Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat framed charges against the accused persons under necessary sections and explained them in the local language in the presence of their lawyers, on which they (accused) pleaded not guilty and claimed trial in the case. The judge said, “The manner of their mobilization and intent as it appears from their conduct, the said unlawful assembly was for the purpose of committing the murder of Deepak like rioting and other offenses like the murder of the deceased Deepak,” the judge said.
In an order dated November 9, he said, “The conspiracy to attack the victim in an unlawful manner also appears to be widespread.” According to Live Law, government witnesses who were examined during the investigation said that around 100 or 200 people carrying stones, hoe, sticks, knives and iron rods attacked the crowd coming from another street. He also said that during the riots one person was caught by the mob along with the accused persons, brutally thrashed and finally stabbed.
The judge said the most important witness in the case was Sunil Kumar, who was an eyewitness to the entire incident and had given a complete picture of how the deceased Deepak was killed by a mob of armed Muslims including the accused persons.
According to the court’s order, Sunil had said, “On February 25, a mob of Muslims was coming illegally from Kardampuri culvert and was trying to cross the culvert Gokulpur, shouting ‘Allah ho Akbar’. The said armed illegal mob caught hold of Deepak who was brutally beaten up. The eyewitness told that he hid under the cover of a wall behind the drain and saw the whole murder through the crack of the wall. He has identified the four accused persons by their names.
“Thus, for the object of the charge, the prosecution is able to satisfy the court that in their general purpose prosecution including the accused persons, an unlawful mob rioted and struck the deceased Deepak with a deadly weapon, causing his death,” the court said. Went.’ The court said that the statement of an eyewitness gave a complete picture of how the deceased was murdered by an armed Muslim mob of accused persons.
According to the court report, ‘The delay in recording his statement is attributed to the fact that he was in shock and had gone to his village due to the COVID-19 situation. Later he returned and gave his statementā¦ It is not that suddenly Sunil Kumar’s statement has come to the fore in the month of June.
The court said that there are grounds to hold that the four accused had committed sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, with deadly weapon) and 302 (murder) of the IPC as well as sections 149 (member of unlawful assembly who committed the same act) having committed an offence). Along with this, charges have also been framed under sections 302 (murder) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
Significantly, in February 2020, communal clashes broke out in North-East Delhi, after violence between supporters of the amended Citizenship Act and protesters opposing it, at least 53 people were killed and more than 700 were injured.
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