E-Paper
Arson at Capt Abhimanyu’s house: Charges framed against 52; trial to begin on May 20
The court of CBI special judge Rajeev Goyal on Tuesday framed charges and the case would now begin trial on May 20, 2024, against 52 accused of rioting, attempt to murder and Arms Act.
A CBI special court framed charges against 52 persons accused in connection with violence and arson at the residential and official premises of then Haryana finance minister Captain Abhimanyu in Rohtak during the Jat quota agitation in February 2016.
The court of CBI special judge Rajeev Goyal on Tuesday framed charges and the case would now begin trial on May 20, 2024, against 52 accused of rioting, attempt to murder and Arms Act.
The CBI court had framed charges against 52 accused, under Sections 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 186 (voluntarily obstructing any public servant in the discharge of his public functions), 188 ( disobedience of an order that is duly promulgated by a public servant), 307 (attempt to murder), 353 (Whoever assaults or uses criminal force to any person being a public servant in the execution), 395 (dacoity), 427 (whoever commits mischief and thereby causes loss or damage to the amount of fifty rupees or upwards, shall be punishable with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or both), 436 (mischief by fire with intent to destroy houses), 450 (house-trespass to commit offence punishable with imprisonment for life) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code along with section 25 of Arms act.
CBI in its chargesheet had said that advocates Sudeep Kalkal, Manoj Duhan and Dilawar Singh were the main instigators. Ashok Balhara, the then-general secretary of the Akhil Bhartiya Sangharsh Samiti, was alleged to have incited the mob to attack Abhimanyu’s house. He is an advocate and had served as a law officer during former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s government. CBI had said that Kalkal, along with Duhan, continuously incited agitators by spreading rumours about an attack on Jats by non-Jats.
Initially, an FIR was registered at Urban Estate police station, Rohtak, on February 27, 2016. The FIR was registered pertaining to the incident, wherein a mob attacked and set on fire the house of Captain Abhimanyu, situated in Sector-14, Rohtak.
CBI took over the investigation at the request of the Haryana government and registered FIR in October 2016.
The CBI had submitted in the court that the accused had attacked and vandalised the house of the Haryana finance minister and set it on fire in February 2016.
The accused in pursuance of criminal conspiracy with other co-accused attempted to murder the family of the minister present in the house at the time of attack.
An alleged loss of nearly ₹14 crore was caused during the attack of arson, rioting and dacoity etc, CBI submitted.
CBI in its chargesheet had said that the attack on finance minister’s house during the Jat reservation violence in February 2016, was pre-planned. CBI had said that the attack was meant “to teach him (Abhimanyu) a lesson” because the police had fired on Jat agitators during the violence, leaving many of them dead.
It may be mentioned that on February 20, 2016, a case was registered on the complaint of Surender Kumar, who at the relevant point of time was posted as guard of Captain Abhimanyu’s, Sector 14, Rohtak house.
The complainant alleged that on February 19, 2016, at about 3.30 pm, unknown rioters armed with canes, lathies, swords and petrol bombs came from the side of Delhi bypass towards the Kothi of Capt Abhimanyu.
CBI had said that during the Jat Reservation Agitation, the accused in criminal conspiracy with each other forcibly entered the residential premises of Captain Abhimanyu, the then finance minister of Haryana. The accused were armed with lathies, swords, firearms, iron rods petrol bombs etc. They forcibly snatched the service weapons and ammunition from security guards, illegally and forcibly entered the house of the finance minister and set ablaze the vehicles parked in the house, destroyed the luggage, put the house on fire and looted items worth crores. The family members of the minister, who were there inside the house, had a narrow escape. The accused violated the prohibitory orders issued by the district magistrate and other government advisories, gave speeches to provoke thousands of agitating mobs, used criminal force against the public servants/police and security personnel to deter them from the lawful discharge of their duties, committed dacoity and criminal house trespass, threw petrol bombs and used firearms with an intent to eliminate the occupants of the said house, the security personnel and other persons deployed there. They also damaged the house property and vehicles by use of explosive substances, fire, etc.
