Bail denied for BJP leader in murder case; court says witness tampering a possibility
New Delhi: Noting that 25-year-old Irfan's mother had categorically identified and named a local BJP leader twice — once before the police and once before a magistrate — for killing her son during the north-east Delhi riots this February, a local court here denied bail to Brijmohan Sharma, reported to be the General Secretary of the BJP's Brahampur Mandal.
The court of Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav also held that the accused was also named by people from his own locality and that the "possibility of the applicant threatening or intimidating" them cannot be ruled out if he is released on bail.
The court here noted that from the evidence of several witnesses it is prima facie apparent that the "riotous mob armed with lethal weapons had engaged in the brutal beating" of one Irfan which led to his death and that multiple witnesses had identified him, in addition to the police having gathered evidence of Sharma's CDR location at the crime scene.
After Sharma's arrest was made public, his father Harish Chandra Sharma had publicly confirmed his son's association with the BJP and said he was also a former BJP leader. Further, media reports on the chargesheet against Sharma show that he had purportedly confessed to his role to the police.
The court in its order observed, "Even the CDR location qua the mobile phone of the applicant has been found to be at or around the scene of crime on the date of incident and no plausible explanation in this regard has come forward from the side of applicant," read the order.
The case pertains to an FIR registered on February 27, which was based on a DD entry made on a call received on the previous day where the caller from Pushta Kartar Nagar alleged that the gates of his house have been broken and "persons armed with sticks have entered the place." Another DD entry was allegedly made before that which was regarding the admission of an injured Irfan at the Jag Parvesh Hospital. Irfan was subsequently shifted to GTB hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, police said.
During the arguments, Special Public Prosecutor Rajiv Krishan Sharma submitted that the present case involved the "brutal murder of a young innocent boy namely Irfan, who was simply killed by the members of riotous mob because he belonged to a different community." SPP Krishan also argued that the brutality of the murder can be gathered from the post-mortem report which allegedly said that, "Irfan had suffered as many as 17 injuries."
Meanwhile, Advocate Ajeet Yadav, on behalf of Sharma, alleged that his client has nothing to do with the alleged incident and has been falsely implicated in the matter "owing to animosity between two communities."
