Delhi Riots: Court Convicts Six For Rioting, Vandalism & Setting Shop On Fire

A Delhi Court has recently convicted six for rioting, vandalism and being part of an unlawful assembly which set on fire articles in a shop during the 2020 North-East Delhi riots.Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Singh of Karkardooma Courts convicted Hariom Gupta, Basant Kumar Mishra, Gorakh Nath, Rohit Gautam, Kapil Pandey and Bheem Sain. All six have been convicted for the offences under Section 188 (disobedience of a lawful order promulgated by a public servant), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting while armed with a deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 435 (mischief by fire or explosive substance), 436 and 450 (house trespass) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. The development ensued in FIR 247 of 2020 registered at Khajuri Khas police station. The case originated from a complaint filed by one Mohd. Wakeel. Wakeel alleged that during the riots, the rioters burnt his shop and all the articles in it and that he had suffered loss of around Rs. 1.5 lakh.Convicting the six men, the judge observed that the proven act of the unlawful assembly of which they were a part was that the mob of rioters acted in unison, vandalized and burnt articles of Wakeel's shop, with the common object to commit riot, arson and mischief.The Court added that the unlawful assembly had committed an act of riot when it broke open the shop of Wakeel Ahmed and set its articles on fire. “This assembly was armed with lathi and dandas etc. which if used by the mob could have been a deadly weapons and thus, this assembly had committed the offence of rioting while being armed with deadly weapons,” the Court said. “The common object of the unlawful assembly, as discussed earlier, was to cause damage to the property and an act in furtherance of this mischief was done whereby, the articles from the shop of the complainant were taken out and set afire,” the judge added.The matter will now be heard on September 19 for arguments on the point of sentence.Click here to read order

Delhi Riots: Court Convicts Six For Rioting, Vandalism & Setting Shop On Fire

Nupur Thapliyal

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