Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh was hearing the case against Arif, Mohd Khalid, Abdul Sattar, Tanveer Ali, and Hunain. (File Photo)
NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has convicted five men for rioting and assaulting police personnel during violence at a Bhajanpura petrol pump in the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, while acquitting them of the charge of setting the fuel station on fire. The prosecution examined 26 witnesses.
Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh, hearing the case against Arif, Mohd Khalid, Abdul Sattar, Tanveer Ali and Hunain, said the prosecution had proved that the five were part of an unlawful assembly that attacked police personnel on duty. In an order dated September 9, the court said, “This unlawful assembly attacked them by pelting stones upon them and ferocity of the attack was such that the police officials fled from the petrol pump by jumping over its wall, and used criminal force upon the public servants and obstructed them in discharge of their duty”. At the same time, by pelting stones upon them, this unlawful assembly had used criminal force upon them in order to prevent them from discharging their duty which was maintaining the law and order,” the judge said. However, the court acquitted the five of the arson charge, finding “very serious doubts” over the prosecution’s claim that the mob had set the petrol pump on fire.
The court relied on the testimony of eight of them, including five police witnesses and an employee of the petrol pump, saying their accounts of the mob’s movement and conduct were mutually consistent and corroborated each other. “It also stands proved that the unlawful assembly had voluntarily obstructed the police officials who were public servants discharging their duty.
The court noted that no witness described any major fire or explosion consistent with a working petrol pump catching fire. The owner of the petrol pump and an employee, both examined as prosecution witnesses, also did not support this part of the case.