CCTV shows back, face for split-second, no public witnesses: Court while granting bail

New Delhi: Noting that the accused is "allegedly seen from his back and his face is seen for a split second," in a CCTV footage, a trial court here granted bail to a man accused in a case of alleged rioting and murder during the north-east Delhi riots in February this year.

An FIR was registered on March 28 at Jafrabad Police Station where it was alleged that on February 24, the complainant and his father, Nitin and Vinod Kumar respectively, were on their way to buy medicines from Kalyan Medicos when a stone allegedly hit Nitin's head near Brahmpuri and both of them fell down from their motorcycle. Following this, a mob of 100 to 150 people came from Kalyan Theka and attacked them.

His father was later rushed to a hospital where he was declared dead on arrival. The postmortem attributed the cause of death to an "injury to head by a blunt force impact."

The complainant also told the police that the mob were allegedly armed with sticks, stones and rods and were chanting Allahu Akbar. Their motorcycle too was set on fire, police claimed. Accused Aleem Safi was soon arrested allegedly on the basis of identification by a co-accused.

Granting Saifi bail on a personal bond of Rs 30,000, Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat in his order stated, "The offence is very serious. However, the role of accused Alim Saifi has to be seen." "In the CCTV footage…the accused is allegedly seen from his back and his face is seen for a split second…There is not witness, public or police who has identified the applicant as the person involved in the present case or the same person shown by the prosecution in the said footage," the court said while adding that the accused has only been identified by one co-accused, Arshad alias Sonu.

Advocate Abdul Gaffar, on behalf of Saifi, said that his client has been "cropped up in the present case on the allegations against some unidentified people being part of a group of people, who attacked the complainant with lathis and swords." The lawyer also submitted that the CCTV footage being shown as evidence by the prosecution is a case of "mistaken identity" while there is no public witness to the crime apart from the complainant himself.