New Delhi, April 5 (UNI) A Delhi District Court on Tuesday discharged six persons accused of being members of an unlawful assembly and committing vandalization in Delhi’s Sonia Vihar area in Delhi riots case of 2020.
In this matter, Sonia Vihar police station lodged an FIR, alleging that a mob had resorted to rioting and committed vandalisation as well as arson, thereby damaging and setting ablaze the shops and vehicles in the area.
After investigation, a charge sheet was filed and it was argued that there was sufficient material on record against all accused in the form of ocular evidence as well as electronic evidence and therefore, the charges were liable to be framed against the accused.
The Counsel for the accused submitted that applicants/accused have been falsely implicated in this matter without there being any iota of legally admissible evidence against them on record.
He further submitted that there was no eye witness, who had seen any of these accused indulging in rioting at the incident spots and the case of the prosecution was based upon the statements of police witnesses only, who were stated to have identified the accused from a video clip and not directly at the spot. So, the applicants may kindly be discharged in this matter.
“It needs to be noted here that at the time of deciding the charges against the accused, the Court is not expected to go deep into the probative value of material on record. At this stage, the Court is not to apply exactly the standard and test, which it finally applies for determining the guilt or otherwise of the accused.
“The Court is not supposed to decide whether the material collected by the investigating agency provides sufficient grounds for conviction of the accused or whether the trial is sure to culminate in his conviction.
“What is required to be seen at this stage is, whether the conviction of the accused is reasonably possible if the material on record remains unrebutted or whether there is strong suspicion, which may lead the Court to think that there is ground for presuming that the accused has committed the offence,” the Court noted at the outset.
Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat, after hearing both the Prosecution and Defence Counsel, said that there was inadequate material against the accused- Ajay, Rohit Saxena, Kuldeep, Utkarsh, Raj alias Dheeraj and Harender Rawat, so it would be sheer wastage of judicial time, if charges were to be framed against them.
The Court further said that co-accused Ashutosh, Vishwajeet and Hunny alias Anil were identified as rioters by more than one witness and that the video footages prima facie appeared to be legally admissible, which could not be discarded without testing their authenticity during trial, so the charges under Sections 143, 147, 427, 435, 436 and 149 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) were liable to be framed against them, besides the charges for other offences for being members of the above noted unlawful assembly and having knowledge that the offences would be committed by the members of the said assembly.
