Charges framed against 4 men part of mob that shot at three witnesses

New Delhi: A local court here has now framed an attempt to murder charge along with other charges against four men — accused of being part of an armed mob that shot at and attacked three public witnesses during the north-east Delhi riots last February. Importantly, the four accused did not fire a weapon and neither was any weapon or ammunition recovered from them.

The court of Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat framed charges against the four — Mohd. Juber, Mohd. Aamir, Samshuddin and Mohd. Barik — under sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 307 (attempt to murder) read with Section 149 (people part of unlawful assembly can be held liable for offences committed by the assembly) of the IPC.

However, noting that no weapon was recovered from the accused and that there was no evidence pointing towards a pre-planned conspiracy — the court discharged the accused of charges under Sections 336 (Act of endangering life or personal safety of others) and 120-B of the IPC.

"As far as charge u/s. 120 B IPC is concerned, there is nothing on record to show prior meeting of the minds for the purpose of criminal conspiracy but there was an armed unlawful assembly of riotous mob consisting of accused persons and which had fired at the public witnesses with an intention to kill them. Thus, there was a firing by the said riotous mob consisting of accused persons in prosecution of their common object to do rioting and to kill three witnesses," the court held.

Moreover, the court order noted that all three public witnesses — Vinod Kumar, Man Mohan and Varun — had categorically said in their statement that a mob of armed men had attacked them and fired upon them on February 26 — they maintained that the four accused had fired upon them and one of the witnesses had identified all four accused by their names.

"...it is clear from their statement that armed rioters had formed unlawful assembly and in prosecution of their common object on 26.02.2020 at about 10.30 pm at Chudi gali, Maujpur, Delhi fired at Vinod Kumar, Vijay, Man Mohan and Varun. It has come categorically in their statements that all four accused persons had fired at them with an intention to kill them," the court noted.

Significantly, while the court at this stage has said that prosecution has met the requirements for chargesheeting the accused, the defence counsel for the accused said that the statements had inconsistencies.

The court noted that at the stage of framing of charges only a prima facie case is to be established — which the prosecution had managed

to do.