Delhi riots: Police file supplementary charge sheet, name 9 for promoting religious enmity

Delhi Police have filed a supplementary charge sheet against nine people in connection with one of the north-east Delhi riot cases and added sections of promoting enmity between different groups in the name of religion.

Delhi Police have filed a supplementary charge sheet against nine people in connection with one of the north-east Delhi riot cases and added sections of promoting enmity between different groups in the name of religion.

Police have cited messages that the nine arrested people had shared on a WhatsApp group -- “Kattar Hindu Ekta”-- that was created during the riots to attack members of the other community. (AP file photo)

Police have cited messages that the nine arrested people had shared on a WhatsApp group -- “Kattar Hindu Ekta”-- that was created during the riots to attack members of the other community.

HT has seen the supplementary charge sheet that police filed before chief metropolitan magistrate Purushottam Pathak on September 26. The charge sheet is related to the murder of Hashim Ali during the riots in Gokulpuri area.

Earlier, in June, the police had filed their first charge sheet in the case against nine accused — Lokesh Kumar Solanki, Pankaj Sharma, Sumit Chaudhary, Ankit Chaudhary, Prince, Jatin Sharma, Vivek Panchal, Rishabh Chaudhary and Himanshu Thakur. The nine were allegedly active members of the WhatsApp group in which they had plotted the violence during the riots. They were then charged under sections of murder, unlawful assembly armed with deadly weapon, rioting, causing disappearance of evidence, among other sections of the Indian penal Code (IPC).

“During the investigations and data retrieved from seized mobile phones has revealed that in the Whatsapp group ‘Kattar Hindu Ekta’, there were averments for promoting enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion and acting in a way that is prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony,” the charge sheet read.

According to the charge sheet, some of the messages sent by the group members were “Do not give them flats on rent” and “we will burn everything of theirs like we burned the madrasa today”, “Do not leave them, kill them.”

“As per the chat of Whatsapp group, the accused persons... conspired to teach Muslims a lesson for attacking the Hindus. They equipped themselves with sticks, swords, firearms etc and killed nine innocent Muslims, including Hashim Ali and his brother Aamir Khan. It is prima facie revealed that there was a well-hatched conspiracy among the accused persons,” the charge sheet said.

“The group members lost their individuality and started working with a mob mind,” police said in their charge sheet.

Another chat that police have attached in the charge sheet was by a man, who has claimed that some people from the “RSS” had come to support them.

In their charge sheet, police have told court that they applied for obtaining sanction from concerned authorities to charge the arrested persons under sections of promoting enmity on basis of religion. The court will take cognizance of charges and proceed to start trial only when the state government gives its sanction. Under section 196 of the Code of Criminal Procedure , the police have to take prior sanction from the department of prosecution, Delhi government for prosecuting anyone under section 153 A.

According to the chargesheet, the WhatsApp group was allegedly created on February 25 to take revenge from the other community.

Riots between Hindus and Muslims had broken out in different parts of north-east Delhi earlier this year, which left 53 dead and over 400 injured. The riots had started after a clash between supporters and protesters of the Citizenship Amendment Act.