'Witnesses Deposed Falsely, Unsafe To Rely': Court Acquits Tahir Hussain's Brother Shah Alam, 8 Others In Delhi Riots Case

A Delhi Court has recently acquitted nine individuals, including brother of AAP Councillor Tahir Hussain— Shah Alam, accused in a case concerning violence and vandalism during the 2020 North-East Delhi riots. Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh of Karkardooma Courts said that the testimonies of the witnesses were general in nature and lacked specificity. The judge also said that the witnesses had deposed falsely with regard to the place of incidents and thus, proceeded to acquit Alam, Rashid Saifi, Mohd. Shadab, Habib, Irfan, Suhail, Salim, Irshad and Azhar.“…I find that it will be unsafe to rely upon the testimonies of these witnesses to convict the accused. I accordingly find that accused are entitled to a benefit of doubt. All the accused are accordingly acquitted of the charges framed against them,” the Court said. The development ensued in FIR 98 of 2020 registered at Dayalpur police station. Charges were framed against the nine accused in October 2023 for the offences under Sections 149, 188, 323, 326, 379, 427, 435, 436, 341 and 450 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. The case related to multiple incidents during the riots, including attack on an Innova Crysta vehicle and injuries to occupants, burning of a motorcycle belonging to a police officer, looting and destruction of street vendors' carts, vandalism and theft of an e-rickshaw and arson at a shop named Royal Motors. Acquitting all the nine individuals, the Court said that the prosecution's case “completely falls apart” on crucial aspects, including the location of the attack on an Innova car and the date of arson at a shop in Chand Bagh.It noted that the prosecution relied primarily on three witnesses- PW2, PW9 and PW11, to establish the presence and role of the accused in the riotous mob but their testimonies were unreliable. Regarding the incident at Royal Motors, the Court noted that the event happened on February 25, 2020, and not on February 24, 2020 as claimed by the prosecution. “That being the case, PW2, PW9 and PW11 could neither have seen this incident on 24.02.2020 nor could they have seen accused engaged in a riot, vandalism and arons at Royal Motors,” the judge said. “With regard to other incidents, their testimonies are general in nature, lacks specificity and especially in view of the fact that these witnesses have deposed falsely with regard to the place of incident of Innova Crysta car as well as the date of incident of Royal Motors and having seen this incident, I find that it will be unsafe to rely upon the testimonies of these witnesses to convict the accused,” the Court said.For context, Shah Alam was discharged in another riots case in 2020 by judge Vinod Yadav who pulled up the Delhi Police and observed that the case appeared to have been solved merely by filing this charge sheet "without any real effort being made to trace out eye witnesses, real accused persons and technical evidence" in the matter.Click here to read order

'Witnesses Deposed Falsely, Unsafe To Rely': Court Acquits Tahir Hussain's Brother Shah Alam, 8 Others In Delhi Riots Case

Nupur Thapliyal

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