2020 North-East Delhi riot case: court convicts six for rioting, damaging property

New Delhi [India], September 19 (ANI): Delhi's Karkardooma Court has convicted six persons for rioting, damaging property by burning the article taken out of a shop in the Sadatpur area during the North East Delhi riots in February 2020. An FIR was registered at the Police Station Khajuri Khas on the Complaint of the Shop owner Wakeel Ahmed.
The court said that the convicts were part of a rioting mob, and their object was to cause damage.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Parveen Singh convicted the accused Gorakh Nath, Bhim Sain, Hari Om Gupta, Kapil Pandey, Rohit Gautam and Basant Kumar after considering the testimony of eye witness head constable Sandeep and other evidence against them.
ASJ Singh said, " I find that by virtue of testimony of Head Constable Sandeep, the prosecution has proved beyond all reasonable doubts that accused on 25.02.2020 at around 11-11.30 p.m were a part of the rioting mob of 100 to 150 persons carrying danda, stones etc. which had broken open the shutter of the shop of the complainant, taken out the articles from the shop, set those articles on fire and thereafter, set fire inside the shop."
" I find that the accused, being a part of this unlawful assembly, are liable to be convicted for offences
punishable under section 188 IPC, 147 read with section 149 IPC, section 148 read with section 149 IPC, section 450 read with section 149 IPC and section 435 read with section 149 IPC," ASJ said in the judgement passed on September 11.
While convicting the accused persons, the court observed, "The common object of the unlawful assembly was to cause damage to the property and an act in furtherance of this mischief was done whereby the articles from the shop of the complainant were taken out and set afire."
The complainant, Mohd Wakeel, had stated that he had suffered a loss of around Rs . 1.50 lacs. Thus, this mischief is covered within the definition of section 435 IPC, the court said.
" However, there is no evidence that this mischief was done with the intent to cause destruction to the building wherein the shop of the complainant was situated. Hence, I find that there is no sufficient evidence to convict the accused under section 436 read with section 149 IPC," ASJ Singh held.
The present case was registered on the complaint of Mohd. Wakeel on 03.03.2020, who alleged he was running a shop in Sadatpur Extension, Gali No.1. He had taken this shop on rent from Mukesh.
On 25.02.2020, the rioters burnt his shop and all the articles in it, and he suffered a loss of around 1.5 lacs. On this complaint, the present case was registered, and an investigation was carried out.
Prosecution witness Sangeeta and HC Sandeep, after seeing a video, identified six persons as the persons who were involved in the incident at Wakeel's shop.
It was argued by the Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) that through Prosecution Witness Kiran and landlady Sangeeta, who were the eye witnesses of the riots, the prosecution had
established that on 25.02.2020 at about 11-11.30 p.m, rioters broke open the shop of the complainant and set its articles on fire.
On the other hand, counsel for the accused contended that the entire case of the prosecution is based upon the testimony of only one police witness, HC Sandeep, who is an interested witness, and his testimony needs corroboration.
This witness, despite seeing the incident and despite being a beat constable, never approached the IO for more than 10 days, and it was only on 10.03.2020 that his statement was recorded, the counsel argued. (ANI)