New Delhi, August 29: The Karkardooma court of Delhi has dismissed the bail pleas of two accused, Feroze and Javed for the murder of Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer Ankit Sharma during the northeast Delhi violence in February.
Additional Session Judge Vinod Yadav said that after the instigation of prime accused in Delhi riot case, Tahir Hussain, violent mob attacked another community in which IB officer Ankit Sharma lost his life.
The court said that it is clear from the evidence and the statements of several witnesses that the mob of rioters was armed with deadly weapons and they ransacked, looted, arson caused significant damage to public and private properties.
The court said that in this violence other communities were executed with the goal of causing maximum harm.
The court said that both the accused were involved in the mob that carried out arson, looting and sabotage. Ankit Sharma lost his life and Ajay, Ajay Jha and Prince Bansal were injured in this incident.
During the hearing, lawyers from the two accused, Nasir Ali and Abdul Ghaffar said that both of them were arrested on March 7 in an FIR of Khajuri Khas. After this, the case has also been falsely implicated.
Lawyers said that no witness has said in his statement that both the accused were involved in the murder of Ankit Sharma.
They said that the witnesses Gyanendra Kochhar and Vikalp Kochhar have given detailed information about the murder case of Ankit Sharma but their statement did not mention the names of both the accused.
โSimilarly, witness Pradeep Verma also did not mention the names of both the accused in his statement before the magistrate. False identification of the culprits has been done by two constables as it is very difficult to identify any one person among one and a half thousand people,โ added accused Lawyers.
It was said on behalf of the accused that the video clip shown is not authentic as both the accused live in the same area. The two accused were at their home on February 25, the day of the incident. The investigation in this case has been completed and there is no need to interrogate the two accused in custody.
Counsel for the accused said that the history of the two is clean and they are the only earning members of their family.
Opposing the bail of both the accused, Delhi Police said that both the accused are connected with the murder case of Ankit Sharma. On February 26, Ankit Sharma’s father Ravindra Kumar came to Dayalpur police station and said that his son had returned from his office on February 25 and went to buy some goods in the evening. When Ankit Sharma did not come for long, his father searched many places and also went to hospitals, however, after waiting till night, he lodged a missing report.
Later, he was then told by some boys that a boy had been killed and thrown into Khajuri Khas drain. The body of Ankit Sharma was extracted from the same drain.
During the investigation, police found in the post mortem report of Ankit Sharma that 51 shards and blunt weapons were attacked on his body. After that, the investigation of this case was handed over to the SIT of the Crime Branch on February 28.
Further investigation found debris, stones, bricks, broken bottles, bullets and some burnt items in the house and surrounding areas of the main accused Tahir Hussain.
Tahir Hussain’s house was used by the rioters to do brick and stonework. Catapult, stone, petrol bottles were found on the third floor terrace of Tahir Hussain’s house.
Delhi Police said that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) was passed on December 11, 2019. Thereafter violence took place on December 13 at Jamia University in Delhi. On 15 December, violent demonstrations took place at Jamia University and other places in which 29 buses were damaged. Thereafter dharna was allowed at many places in north-east Delhi.
The Delhi Police further said that the strike did not happen suddenly but a well-planned conspiracy was concocted for it.
The Delhi Police said that these riots were deliberately committed during the arrival of US President Donald Trump so that the police would be busy at that time. This indicates a deep conspiracy.
They said in Court said that the riots started on February 22 near the Zafarabad Metro station where violence was first carried out. Delhi Police said that it recorded the statements of Vikal Kochar, Gyanendra Kochhar, Head Constable Rahul, Constable Praveen, Deepak Pradhan, Surendrapal Singh Sengar, Akash, Bharat alias Kala, Pradeep Verma, Girish Yaduvanshi, Priyanka Gaur, Rishabh Sharma, Phoolchand etc. All these witnesses identified Tahir Hussain as main conspirator of Delhi riot.
