Delhi Riots: Court Dismisses Bail Plea of Accused in Murder Case

A Delhi court has dismissed the bail plea of a man arrested in a case related to the murder of a local resident during the northeast Delhi riots in February. Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat dismissed the bail plea of Jafar in the case of alleged murder of Mohd Furkan during the riots at Kardam Puri Pulia in the Jyoti Nagar area.

The court said the contention that Jafar’s name was not mentioned in the FIR was misplaced as in cases of rioting, identification of the accused persons was done during the investigation of the case. It further said a video footage of February 24 also showed that Jafar was allegedly actively participating in the riots at Kardam Puri Pulia, in which 18 police officials sustained injuries and Furkan died due to gunshot injury.

“The accused (Jafar) is, thus, part of the unlawful assembly which did the acts of rioting with firearms and pelting stones and which resulted in the death of Furkan on the date by gunshot injury. “In a case of rioting by members of unlawful assembly, every accused is liable for the offences committed by every other member of the unlawful assembly in prosecution of the common object or which the members knew to be likely to be committed in prosecution of the object,” the court said in its order passed on October 28. It further noted that the contention of Jafar’s counsel that the complainant had not identified him despite knowing him was of no relevance since the complainant was not stated to be an eyewitness in the case.

Advocate Dinesh Tiwari, appearing for Jafar, told the court that the main culprits had fled from the spot and the police have falsely implicated him in this case. Tiwari further claimed that Jafar was neither a member of the unlawful assembly nor did he participate in any illegal act.

Special Public Prosecutor Rajeev Krishan Sharma, appearing for the police, opposed the bail plea saying Jafar was part of the unlawful assembly, who had acted with common object to commit riots by attacking public and police in general with stone pelting, using firearms. Sharma said that the main aim of the rioters was to disturb the peace and tranquillity of the area.

He further said during the investigation on July 17, Jafar was shown video footage of the riots, in which he was identified as an active participant in the violence. After seeing the footage, Jafar broke down and admitted his mistake and disclosed that on February 24 he, along with Anwar, Kasim, Khalid Imran, Nadeem, Salman, Shahrukh and others, participated in the riots and damaged the cameras so that no footage could be captured and recorded, the public prosecutor said.

Sharma further said that Jafar had disclosed that he had thrown his clothes, which he was wearing on the day of the incident in the drain and had left with his family to Rampur in Uttar Pradesh due to intensive search being made by police. Communal clashes broke out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after violence between those supporting the new citizenship law and those opposing it spiralled out of control, leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.