Delhi Court discharges man falsely made accused in Delhi riots case; says Police made up statements

A Delhi court on Thursday found that two Delhi Police officials made up statements to make a man an accused in a case related to the North-east Delhi riots of 2020 [State v Javed]. .Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala of the Karkardooma courts acquitted one Javed of all the charges.The Court said that the investigating officer (IO) in the case and one constable who had identified Javed as one of the rioters, gave different descriptions regarding his arrest and that they contradict each other.“IO was probably making artificial statement in respect of the time of getting knowledge about involvement of accused Javed in the incidents being probed in this case. That could be reason for him to first claim that Ct Pawan/PW9 had told him about involvement of Javed on 27.02.2020 itself, but he could not say about the reasons for not mentioning name of Javed in the FIR,” the judge observed.He further noted that the IO took advantage of a break in recording of his evidence and changed his version to make it in consonance with records of the case.“Similarly, PW9 [constable] went on to give wrong description of location of the grill shop (shop of PW4) [the shop where vandalism took place], while saying that it was situated at main Karawal Nagar road, near other shops i.e. shop of cooler (shop of PW3) and institute. Shop of PW4 was located in a different area of Nehru Nagar. Such false claim of PW9 shows that even he made artificial statement regarding having properly seen the mob at the time of incidents in question,” the Court said. .The Court further said that chargesheet was filed for multiple incidents in this case in a mechanical manner without investigating the incidents properly.“There was no evidence of offence u/s 436 IPC [Mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house, etc] and such Section was also invoked without ascertaining the actual situation,” the Court stated. .The Delhi Police had registered a first information report (FIR) on February 25, 2020 after a complaint was received from the control room in Dayalpur police station that riots were taking place near RP Public School.In total, four complaints were received. The police clubbed them together and investigated them jointly. Javed was arrested on April 14, 2020 from his residence and he allegedly made a disclosure statement that he had indulged in rioting and arson at Sherpur chowk.The Court framed charges against him under Sections 147/ 148/ 427/ 435/ 436 of IPC read with Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)..In a detailed order pronounced on Thursday, Judge Pramachala noted that one of the complainants, master Salman, was shot in the thigh by three boys in the morning of February 25.This was not an act of a riotous mob yet the complaint by Salman was clubbed with the present FIR which was for riot by a mob. This was misconceived and not in consonance with law, the Court observed.“This illegality was continued in order to report this complaint in the chargesheet in this case, despite the fact that neither Salman had identified accused as one of the culprits, nor IO met any other witness to this incident, who would have claimed having seen accused as one of three boys involved in this incident,” the Court noted. In September 12, 2021, Salman was examined again under Section 161 CrPC when he gave a slightly different description of the incident to say that it was a mob of some boys that attacked him. However, he denied involvement of any person in the photographs shown to him.The Court concluded that investigation in Salman’s case was “illegally clubbed” with the case against Javed on the pretext of proximity to the place of incident..The judge finally held that though the prosecution had established the incident of riot and vandalism, they failed to prove Javed’s presence in the unlawful assembly responsible for such incidents beyond reasonable doubt."In view of my foregoing discussions, observations and findings, accused Javed is hereby acquitted of all the charges leveled against him in this case," the Court ruled. .Notably, this is the second case in the past one week where the Court has criticised Delhi Police’s conduct in investigating the riots case.On August 18, the same judge had discharged Akil Ahmad, Rahis Khan and Irshad of all the charges holding that the police filed chargesheet in a “predetermined, mechanical and erroneous manner”This FIR was also registered at the same police station (Dayalpur) as in the case of Javed..[Read Judgment]