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Delhi’s Karkardooma court has formally framed charges against eight individuals for the murder of an auto driver during the North East Delhi riots. The victim, Babbu, was caught in the violence between two communal groups at Khajuri Chowk on February 25, 2020.
He was assaulted by one of the groups and succumbed to his injuries two days later while undergoing treatment at the hospital. His post-mortem report revealed multiple head injuries. The court, citing insufficient evidence, discharged 11 other accused individuals from the case.
Charges Framed Against Eight Accused
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Pulastya Pramachala, in an order dated March 18, stated, “There is sufficient evidence to frame charges against eight accused for murder, rioting, and other offences.”
The individuals charged include Rahul alias Ajay, Sandeep alias Sanjeev, Harjeet Singh alias Happy, Kuldeep, Bharat Bhusan alias Lucky, Dharmender alias Dham, Sachin Gupta alias Mopi, and Sachin Rastogi. They face charges under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including Section 148 (rioting with a deadly weapon), Section 153-A (promoting enmity between groups), Section 302 read with Section 149 (murder committed by an unlawful assembly), and Section 188 (violation of prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code).
However, the court dropped charges related to conspiracy under Section 120-B IPC and making inflammatory statements under Section 505 IPC due to a lack of evidence.
Court Cites Video Evidence in Judgment
Among those discharged from the case are Rizwan, Israr, Taiyab, Iqbal, Juber, Maroof, Shamim, Adil, Sahabuddin, Farman, and Imran.
“During arguments, the relied upon two video clips were also seen in the court. Videos did show the incident of beating of a boy on the road. Said boy is stated to be Babbu. The videos made it clear that there were two rival groups of persons, who were attacking each other. In the given backdrop of the incident, it is amply clear that those were groups of persons from the Hindu and Muslim community, and that this incident was one of the incidents of communal riot, which rocked the North-East part of Delhi for almost three days. The victim was from the Muslim community and the videos showed that he was chased and assaulted on the road by the members of one of the groups, which is stated to be about persons from the Hindu community,” the judge stated.
(With Inputs from ANI)
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