North East Delhi riots: Court acquits 5 accused of rioting, murder due to lack of evidence

New Delhi [India], April 4 (ANI): Karkardooma Court on Thursday acquitted five accused due to lack of evidence in a case of rioting, arson and murder of a youth, namely Salman, in the area under Police station Karawal Nagar.
The court, while acquitting the accused persons, said that although allegations of criminal conspiracy leading to the murder of Salman were levelled against the accused persons, the record is totally silent with respect to any evidence to support such allegations.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Pulastya Pramachala acquitted the accused, namely Kuldeep, Deepak Yadav, Deepak Thakur, Mohd. Furkan and Mohd Irshad, saying there is no evidence against them.
"I find that there is no evidence on the record to connect any of the accused persons with the incident probed in this case. Other charges are not maintainable in this case," ASJ Pulastya Pramachala held in the judgment.
"Hence, all accused namely Kuldeep, Deepak Yadav, Deepak Thakur, Mohd. Furkan and Mohd. Irshad, are hereby acquitted of all the charges leveled against them, in this case," the court said in the judgment dated April 3.
The accused persons were arrested on the basis of identification by the eye witnesses based on the CCTV footage.
The exact place of incident of murder could not be identified where Salman had gun shot injury.
The court said that it must be borne in mind that, first of all, there should have been evidence to show the exact place of the incident with Salman. "No witness of the prosecution said anything about this fact."
The court observed, "In such a situation, the relied-upon video footage does not serve any purpose in this case. Unless the place of incident is proved on the record, a video of a riot in any other place cannot lend support to the prosecution's case."
It further said that the Prosecution had to show the involvement of the accused in the riotous incident with Salman.
"Their appearance in the video of riots or mobs at any other place cannot be helpful to prove charges in this case. Therefore, the reports given by FSL experts with respect to video footage do not help the case of prosecution," the court held.
The case of Prosecution was that on 24.02.2020, Salman had a gunshot injury and assault and was taken to GTB Hospital with the alleged history of physical assault by a mob at Shiv Vihar Tiraha. (ANI)