Security personnel in Northeast Delhi. (Express Archive)

A PCR call made during the Northeast Delhi riots helped Delhi Police track a key eyewitness, who shared details of how a mob carrying weapons identified and killed Muslim men and threw their bodies in a drain, reveal three chargesheets filed in connection with the killing of three men during the riots.

The Delhi Police chargesheets related to the murders of Aamin, Bhure Ali and Hamza place on record details of a PCR call made on February 26 at 10.05 pm, wherein the caller informed police about a Muslim man’s bike being set on fire, and the man jumping into the drain to escape. The caller was traced and identified as a Ganga Vihar resident. His disclosure statement is now a key piece of evidence.

As per the chargesheet, the man first made a PCR call at 10.05 pm. The incident description read: “The caller is Hindu. Hindus have set a Muslim man’s bike on fire. They were also going to set him on fire, and he jumped into the drain.”

According to the chargesheet, in a call 20 minutes later, the same caller said, “Muslims are being killed and their bikes are being set on fire”.

The chargesheet quotes the man as saying he was returning home on February 24 evening when he was “accosted by the rioters at Ganga Vihar”. “While applying the brake, his bike slipped and he fell down… When he got up, he found his bike missing… He made a PCR call and thereafter went to police station Gokalpuri, but his complaint could not be lodged as the situation was grim and officials told him to come the next day,” it states.

The next day, at 4 pm, while returning home from Gokalpuri police station, “he saw a large mob carrying stones, cudgel, sticks, swords, and iron rods, etc, on Johripur Pulia, shouting slogans like ‘Jai Sri Ram’ and ‘Har Har Mahadev’. They were checking identity of persons and if any Muslim was found, they were beating and throwing bodies in the naala after killing them. Most in the mob were wearing a helmet or had their faces muffled,” the chargesheet states.

On February 26, around 9.30 pm, he went to the Bhagirathi Vihar drain in search of his bike, and “saw that the mob had stopped a person coming from Loni”. “After establishing his Muslim identity, they killed him with stones, cudgel, sticks, swords, and iron rods and threw him in the naala. Thereafter, the mob stopped two persons riding an Apache bike. The mob, after establishing their identity, killed both the persons… and threw them in the naala… The mob killed several others after confirming their religious identity,” the chargesheet states.

The chargesheet also states he could identify a few “persons in the mob”. “Sumit and Ankit Fauji were leading the mob and giving directions to associates… He knows all of them well, being from the same area. Thereafter, he left for his home and called at PCR No. 100 two times,” the chargesheet states.

Police have also relied on the disclosure statements of two other eyewitnesses. Both gave similar details of what transpired. On one of the witnesses, the chargesheet states: “After seeing these incidents, he was in fear and did not report them to anyone. Later, he thought he should report these incidents to police.”

Aamin was killed and thrown in a drain in Bhagirathi Vihar’s C-block around 9.30 pm on February 25, when he was coming from Brijpuri Puliya on foot. On February 26, around 10.30 am, Bhure Ali was killed and thrown at the same spot as Aamin. And on February 26, around 9.15 pm, Hamza was killed and thrown in a drain in E-block, while he was coming from Mustafabad.

Police have named nine accused in the murders — Lokesh Solanki (19), Pankaj Sharma (31), Ankit Chaudary (23), Prince (22), Jatin Sharma (19), Himanshu Thakur (19), Vivek Panchal (20), Rishab Chaudary (20) and Sumit Chaudhary (23).