Delhi Court acquits BJP, Congress MLAs accused of attacking former CPI member in 2016

A Delhi court has acquitted Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Om Prakash Sharma and former Congress MLA Tarvinder Singh Marwah in a case where they were accused of assaulting a former Communist Party of India (CPI) member outside the Patiala House Courts in 2016 [State v. Om Prakash Sharma & Ors]..Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ravindra Kumar Pandey exonerated Sharma, observing that it wasn’t proved that he was present alongside the mob that allegedly beat up and wrongfully restrained the complainant, Ameeque Jamai."No other eye witness of the incident was associated in the investigation or produced in the trial and no valid explanation was offered by the prosecution or by the investigating agency," it was noted in the order passed on October 26..“It is also not proved that accused Om Prakash Sharma had caused any injury of any nature to the complainant Ameeque Jamai. It is also not proved that accused Om Prakash Sharma threatened to kill the complainant,” the verdict highlighted..Sharma was accused of a number of offences including voluntarily causing hurt, wrongful restraint, criminal intimidation to cause grievous hurt and having a common intention.“In view of the above discussion, accused Om Prakash Sharma is acquitted from the present case and from the charges punishable under Sections 323, 341, 506(II) and Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC),” it was held..The prosecution had alleged that on February 15, 2016, at around 3:30 pm outside the Patiala House Court Complex, Sharma and Marwah along with their unknown associates caused simple hurt to the complainant Jamai and had also wrongfully restrained him. It was also alleged that Sharma had criminally intimidated the complainant and threatened to kill him.The incident stemmed from a hearing related to former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Kanhaiya Kumar, who was scheduled to be produced in court in connection with a sedition case registered that year. Jamai, being a CPI member, was present in the court complex..Sharma, on the other hand, contended that the complainant had given a false statement during his examination regarding the identity of the accused, their role in the commission of the offence, presence of public persons at the spot, injuries received on his body, presence of media persons during the incident and recording of the incident.The Court noted that Sharma and Jamai belonged to “different political parties and different ideologies”. The complainant, it was stated, knew Sharma from 2013-2014 onwards, much prior to the date of incident."However, the complainant did not disclose his name in his initial complaint and role in the commission of offence and when he was called as a witness and was examined on 27.10.2020 and on 03.02.2021, he made material improvement from his initial statement,” it observed..The Court also concluded that Marwah was “liable to be acquitted from the present case for want of any incriminating evidence” against him for offences under Sections 341, 323 and Section 34 of the IPC..[Read Order]