Main conspirators of Delhi riots deflected blame on Kapil Mishra and Bhim Army: Prosecution to court

Special public prosecutor Amit Prasad, opposing the bail applications of former JNU student Umar Khalid and six others, made the submissions before Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat and managed to conclude the points of conspiracy, but is yet to argue the individual role of the applicants.

Since the bail applications have been pending for a long time, the court decided to club and hear them together. The hearing will take place on Thursday.

Prasad, accusing the applicants of deflecting blame to BJP leader Kapil Mishra and the Bhim Army, submitted: “What is important is that on one side we have seen you now say that after a call of (Bharath bandh by) Bhim Army there is escalation. Then complaint against Kapil Mishra. This is a message from Khalid Saifi. The first front Bhim Army and second front you are opening is against Kapil Mishra… There is neither Bhim Army, I will show from Kapil Mishra also what is the connect they bring in. I have also shown there is no local participation. When no local women are there, what is the option? Importing from somewhere.”

Arguing that the applicants resorted to a narrative building, the SPP said, “On one side you say police are absent. On another side, you say police are lathi charging. So the absent police are lathi charging? Do you talk about the need for ambulances? You block the roads. You paralyse the system. You don’t let the ambulances pass. This is all narrative building.”

Prasad read the statement of a protected witness who was present in a meeting attended by the accused on February 16 and 17, 2020, to state that this meeting was not connected to any “so-called peaceful protest”, and added, “If you are doing peaceful protests, then why are you stocking up on acid? The purpose was to create violence.”

Reading out messages from a WhatsApp group, Delhi Protests Support Group (DPSG), he stressed how a participant wrote that the locals will not support the group’s proposal to incite violence: “There is no mincing of words… local people have evidence. And these people have now come up to support the case of prosecution… it is not that I am reading from my chargesheet. I am reading from their document, pulling out paper from their own book. There is a conspiracy of silence. I will address it separately, how you are masking, covering up and deflecting. I’ll show from each chat.”

Prasad asked how peaceful can a protest be if there are sticks and red chilli. He went on to read a statement that alleged that Umar had said blood had to be shed. “You are not shedding your own blood. Whose blood are you shedding ?” He further read a message allegedly sent by documentary filmmaker Rahul Roy, which stated that blocking roads is the first strategy and the next phase of this movement would be confrontational.

“What more evidence of violence does one need,” the SPP said.

The SPP also read out a message purportedly sent by activist Harsh Mander, saying that they need 50 non-Muslim young people at every protest site. “Who is doing Muslim, non-Muslim now? And when these facts appear in chargesheet, the investigating officer (IO) becomes communal,” the SPP said.

The SPP also played CCTV footage and said, “Now we see visible sign of peaceful protest. Carrying of flag. Sign of ‘so-called’ peaceful protest – carrying a sword and dundas… These are dundas being distributed or prepared for the peaceful protest.”