Delhi riots: Court calls murder calculated attack, says witness hid behind drain

The case relates to the alleged killing of a man during the riots in northeast Delhi, who died of a hemorrhagic shock.

A Delhi court on Friday framed charges of murder, rioting and criminal conspiracy against four accused in the alleged killing of a man during the riots in northeast Delhi last year. The court said it was a “calculated attack”.

53 people died and hundreds were injured in the northeast Delhi riots in February last year. (Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)

Additional sessions judge Amitabh Rawat further said a key witness in the case hid behind a wall behind a drain and saw the entire murder through the gap in the wall.

The four men -- Anwar Hussain, Kasim, Shahrukh, and Khalid Ansari -- have been accused of mercilessly beating a man named Deepak to death near Ambedkar College on February 25, 2020. He died due to hemorrhagic shock, as per the post mortem report.

The judge said, “By the manner of their mobilisation and intent as construed from their conduct, the said unlawful assembly can be said to have conducted itself for riots and other offences like murder of deceased Deepak, in prosecution of their common object. The conspiracy is also writ large by the calculated attack on the victim by the unlawful assembly."

He said the most important witness in the case was one Sunil Kumar, who gave a complete picture of the incident and how the deceased was killed by the “armed Muslim mob consisting of accused persons”.

According to the court, Sunil had seen, “on February 25, one Muslim unlawful assembly coming from Kardampuri Pulia and shouting Allah Ho Akbar was trying to cross the Pulia Gokulpur. The said armed unlawful assembly caught hold of Deepak who was mercilessly beaten.” He told the court that he hid behind a wall behind the drain and saw the entire murder through the gap in the wall. The eyewitness also identified all the four accused persons by their names.

“Thus... the prosecution has been able to satisfy the Court that an unlawful assembly, including accused persons in the prosecution of their common object, had committed riots and hit the deceased Deepak with a deadly weapon causing his death,” the court said.

The court framed charges under sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 302 (murder), read with sections 149 (unlawful assembly), and 120­B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Delhi witnessed one of the worst communal clashes in its northeast region in February 2020, as massive violence was unleashed between supporters of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and those protesting against it. The clashes left at least 53 people dead and over 700 injured.