Court grants bail to 3 people in north-east Delhi riots cases

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court Friday granted bail to three people in two cases related to the riots in north-east Delhi in February last year, saying identification of the accused by the police witnesses was hardly of any consequence due to the delay.

Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav granted the relief to Mohd Tahir, Shebu Khan and Hamid on furnishing a bail bond of Rs 20,000 with one surety of like amount each.

While Tahir was granted bail in the case related to vandalism and torching or a shop allegedly by a riotous mob in Gokalpuri area, Khan and Hamid were granted the relief in the case of torching of a sugarcane godown during the riots in Dayalpur area.

"The identification of applicants (Khan, Tahir and Hamid) by police official (who was posted as Beat Officer in the area in question at the relevant time) is hardly of any consequence, as this court is not able to comprehend as to why the Beat Officer waited till the recording of his statement when he had categorically seen and identified the applicants indulging in riots on the date of incident ie February 24, 2020."

"This casts a serious doubt on the credibility of said police witness," the court said in its similar order passed in the two cases.

It further noted that the accused persons were neither named in the FIR nor there were any specific allegations against them. It said Tahir was also not visible in any CCTV footage.

The court said several co-accused in both the matters were already enlarged on bail whose roles were similar to the three persons.

During the trial, the accused claimed they have been falsely implicated in the matters.

The police's Special Public Prosecutor opposed the bail pleas saying the accused persons were allegedly involved in rioting in the area.

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