2020 northeast Delhi riots: Court releases six murder accused 

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has discharged six accused from the offence of attempt to murder in a case related to the 2020 northeast Delhi riots. However, the court said they will face trial for the offence of rioting. After the order, the court transferred the case back to a magisterial court concerned, saying that the case was ‘not exclusively triable by the court of sessions.’

 “In the way, the investigation has been conducted, accused persons cannot be charged under Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC, though it could be argued that all accused persons participated in the riots,” Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat said.

 Besides the six, another person was also booked in the case but only for the offence of rioting. The court was hearing a case where seven accused were booked for allegedly being a part of the ‘riotous mob’ on February 25, 2020, near Maujpur Babarpur metro station.

The court noted that the ‘entire focus’ of the investigation was to show the involvement of the six accused as part of the riotous mob, which had caused a gunshot injury to a person.  “However, curiously, Sajid (the injured person), during the investigation, was made an accused.

One of the primary reasons was that since he had suffered a gunshot injury during the riots, he can be held to be a part of the riotous mob. By this logic, every injured person in a riots case can be made an accused,” the court said.

The court also said that although the gunshot injury must have been caused by a pistol(Katta) fired by one person, six persons were charged with the offence of an attempt to murder.