New Delhi, March 4 Delhi's Karkardooma Court has granted bail to a man accused of murder during the North-East Delhi riots 2020, saying even as the prosecution examined the cited eyewitnesses, none supported the case.
The court also asked the Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora to sensitise all Investigating Officers (IOs) about their duty towards assisting the court in a fair manner.
Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala was hearing the bail plea of Rishabh Chaudhary in a case of rioting and alleged murder of a man in Gokulpuri area during the 2020 riots.
The deceased was identified as Mushraff and his body was found in a drain near Johripur Pulia in Gokalpuri on February 27, 2020.
According to the postmortem report, there were 12 external injuries on the body and the cause of death was injuries to the brain produced by blunt force impact.
"... cited eyewitnesses have been examined, but they did not establish the incident in question. The other two remaining witnesses did not claim having seen any person in the mob. In view of my above mentioned observations and the present situation in the case, I find the applicant to be entitled to bail," the judge said in the order.
"Hence, bail application is allowed and applicant Rishabh Chaudhary is admitted to bail, on his furnishing P/B and S/B in the sum of Rs 30,000 each with one surety in the like amount," the court ordered.
The judge further said that in the reply, apart from giving the gist of the investigation done in this case, the Investigation Officer (IO) referred to the statement of an eye-witness and, according to the prosecution, this witness had identified the rioters and had named them.
"In the description of exact evidence against the applicant, the IO has simply mentioned the name of the cited and relied upon alleged eyewitnesses. In the concluding part of the reply, IO mentioned that the trial of the case is in advance stage and during the same, one witness had positively identified the applicant. However, IO has not mentioned the name of such witness, which according to him identified the applicant," said the judge.
"The witness categorically stated that he had not identified any one in the mob on February 24, 2020 and on February 25, 2020, he did not come out of his home at any point of time. He also stated that he did not mention the name of any person as a member of the mob seen by him on February 25, 2020, before the police, nor did he identify any one before the police," the court said.
The court observed that the statement of this witness was recorded in the presence of Special PP and IO, but the reply filed by IO does not refer to such a statement of this witness.
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