Creator of chat group yet to be tracked down, cops say 'sincere efforts made'

New Delhi: New details from multiple chargesheets filed by the Delhi Police against a group of Hindu rioters in several of the riots-related murder cases show that the creator of the WhatsApp group where these rioters had conspired to "identify people by their religion and kill them" is yet to be tracked down with the Delhi Police saying "sincere efforts have been made to trace the group creator to verify the facts".

According to multiple eyewitnesses, the Delhi Police, in its chargesheets have said that this group of rioters had stopped innocent passersby in the area of Bhagirathi Vihar, ascertained their religion, forced them to chant "Jai Shree Ram" and then killed them when they refused to do so before throwing them in the Ganda Nala of the area.

However, according to submissions made by the investigating team probing the case, the creator of the "Kattar Hindut Ekta" WhatsApp group, identified so far only by his phone number, had not been traced or arrested till as late as June 5. The Delhi Police had traced the phone number that had created the group chat and found that the number was registered to a woman in Bhajanpura and also realised later that her son was using the phone number.

The Delhi Police told the court on June 5 that the registered address for these persons did not exist in the area and that "sincere efforts are being made to trace him". The police found that this WhatsApp group was created on February 25 at 12:49 hrs and initially there were 125 members in this group, of which 47 had exited the group by March 8.

Furthermore, the Delhi Police has presented transcripts of chats from the group, establishing that the key accused who had been chargesheeted were along with other members, actively involved in organising their attacks against Muslims. One accused, Lokesh Solanki had posted in the

group on the night of February 26, "I'm Lokesh Solanki from Ganga Vihar. If anyone has any problem and they are falling short of men there, tell me and I will come there with all of my Ganga Vihar team. I have all the items — bullets, guns, everything."

Solanki had also posted minutes later, "Your brother has just around 9'o'clock killed two Muslims near B.Vihar.," which was followed with, "And threw them in the Nala... with my team." According to one chargesheet filed against Solanki and his co-accused in another murder case, at least three eyewitnesses have recorded their statements, all of them categorically maintaining that Solanki and his men ran amock identifying passersby by their religion and then killing them and throwing them in the drain after ascertaining that they were Muslim in the Bhagirathi Vihar area.

Significantly, the Delhi Police have held that the transcripts from the "Kattar Hindut Ekta" group "clearly falls in the category of Extra Judicial Confession". The police said these confessions had been made voluntarily by few of the accused and that the timing of these messages must also be noted as they are "exactly at the time when the offences were being committed". with pti inputs