New Delhi, July 24 A Delhi court has denied bail to an accused Armaan in a case related to violence in North-East Delhi in February, considering the gravity of the offence and observing that his objective was to eliminate persons from another community.
Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav in an order dated July 23, noted, "The kind of weapons which the other co-accused persons with applicant were carrying clearly go on to show that it was an unlawful assembly, object whereof was to eliminate persons from other community and cause damage to public and private property. In any case this is a matter of trial."
The riot happened near Shiv Mandir during which two persons received gunshot injuries, while five were injured in stone pelting. An accused named Shakir was arrested who disclosed the involvement of applicant Armaan and three others.
While dismissing the plea, the court also alluded to the CCTV footage which showed Armaan, as well as "other rioting colleagues", with deadly weapons.
"The further investigation in the matter is on with regard to the conspiracy angle as well as to apprehend the other persons of unlawful assembly. Considering the gravity of offence, I do not think it to be a fit case for grant of bail. The bail application is accordingly dismissed," ASJ Vinod Yadav said.
During the proceedings, Special Public Prosecutor Saleem Ahmed told the court that the CCTV footage obtained from the Public Works Department shows Armaan as well as other co-accused persons actively participating in the riots.
"The applicant was found having a 'danda' in his hands; whereas, other co-accused persons were having pistols, sword, bat and stones etc. If released on bail at this stage may tamper with the evidence and hamper further investigation," he said, seeking the dismissal of the application.
Counsel for the accused, Advocate Mehmood Pracha, however, emphasized that his client has been falsely implicated and he may, at the most, be termed as a "merely passive witness".
He argued that the CCTV footage was manipulated and not legally sustainable "because as per the documents filed along with the chargesheet, a clear lag of 166 minutes was found."
Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.
( With inputs from IANS )