Delhi riots case: Court grants bail to two, says they are not seen in any CCTV footage of incident

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has granted bail to two men in a February communal riots case in which several policemen and a local man received gunshot injuries, saying there was no CCTV footage of the incident where they could be identified.

Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat granted the relief to Gulfam and Aatir on furnishing a bail bond of Rs 25,000 each and a surety of like amount in the case.

One Rohit Shukla allegedly received gunshot injury in the incident at Mauzpur Chowk during the commual violence in northeast Delhi.

Shrukh Pathan, whose picture showing him pointing a gun at unarmed Delhi Police head constable during the communal riots went viral on social media, was also an accused in the case.

He is in judicial custody in the matter.

The court, in its order passed on November 6, said that Shukla did not name Gulfam and Aatir when his statement was recorded on March 9 and later identified them on April 1.

While granting bail, the court directed them not to tamper with evidence or leave the jurisdiction of Delhi without its prior permission.

It, however, dismissed the bail plea of one Salman in the case, saying during the investigation a public eyewitness stated in his statement recorded under section 161 (examination by police) Code of Criminal Procedure that he had seen Salman allegedly shouting the slogan “Allah Ho Akbar” and instigating the crowd against a community.

It said that the witness had specifically stated he had seen Salman involved in stone-pelting at Mauzpur Chowk on February 24.

During the hearing, advocate Abdul Gaffar, appearing for Aatir and Gulfam, told the court they were falsely implicated in the case and have not been covered by any CCTV footage nor any recovery was made from them Special Public Prosecutor Jinendra Jain, appearing for the police, opposed the bail pleas and said Gulfam and Aatir were allegedly part of an unlawful assembly which had pelted stones and fired upon the passersby.

The public prosecutor further said Shukla had stated in his statement that accused Aatir, Gulfam and Osama were part of the group of people chanting the religious slogan and a person from the mob fired upon him.

Communal violence had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after clashes between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.