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News Desk: A Delhi court framed charges of of writing unlawful assembly and arson against three persons – Deepak, Prince and Shiv – for allegedly vandalising and setting the Janati mosque on fire on February 24, 2020 in Gokalpuri during the northeast Delhi riots, noting that the delay in recording the statements of two witnesses couldn’t be held fatal to the prosecution case at the stage of deciding charges.
The court on February 11 said “No doubt, the statements of these two witnesses have been recorded on September 5, 2021, but they have clearly mentioned that they did not disclose the incident to police on account of fear and it is when police reached their shop in Ganga Vihar for making inquiries regarding their complaint in (another) case that they garnered courage to make a statement in this case”
It also noted that constables Raksh and Vipin stated that when they reached Ganga Vihar along with the investigating officer on March 9, 2020, head constable Mahesh had told them that these three rioters, along with two associates, who allegedly committed vandalisation and arson in the mosque, were present in the A block park. Mahesh had identified all of them in a CCTV footage given to him by a secret informer, the cops said.
Police arrested the accused after this, and “therefore, it cannot be said the arrest of the accused on March 9, 2020 was without any evidence” the court pointed out. “The evidence was there in the shape of video footage… though the CD containing it was seized by the investigating officer on the next day” it added.
The counsel for the accused argued that the initial chargesheet was filed without any evidence against them and two of the witnesses were planted later.
