Delhi riots: Charges framed against three men for setting fire to Janati Mosque in N-E Delhi

New Delhi: A Delhi court has now framed charges against three men for allegedly setting fire to the Janati Mosque in North-East Delhi's Gokulpuri area during the February 2020 riots there, holding that the delay in public witnesses coming forward can be attributed to the atmosphere of terror and trauma that prevailed among the residents at the time.

The court of Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat framed charges against the three men - Deepak, Prince and Shiv under Sections 147, 148, 380, 427, 436 read with sec. 149 of the Indian Penal Code, in the case, where according to witnesses, two juveniles were also allegedly involved in setting fire to the mosque.

While the defence tried to argue that the delay in witnesses coming forward meant that they were "planted", the court held that it would be unjustified to disbelieve their account at this stage in the case - without first testing it during cross-examination during trial proceedings.

The court went on to say, "It needs to be kept in mind that on account of atmosphere of terror and trauma due to unprecedented riots that had taken in North East District of Delhi from 24.02.2020 to 27.02.2020, the public had got immensely traumatized to the extent that nobody was willing to come forward and make statement to the police with regards to the incidents of violence which they had witnessed. It is for this reason that the delay in recording the statements of above two witnesses in this case can not be held fatal to the prosecution case at this stage when charges are to be decided against the accused."

According to case records, the police registered a case in relation to the vandalism and arson of the mosque after it received information of the same on February 24. Following this, the police visited the spot with the fire brigade and saw a mob of 400-500 people with wooden sticks and iron rods, vandalising the mosque and setting fire to it.

While there was no CCTV footage available in the nearby area, a secret informer handed over video footage of the rioting and vandalism, based on which the police identified the above-mentioned accused along with two other juveniles.

The video footage was examined forensically and it was found that it had not been tampered with in any manner, the court noted while framing charges. In addition to this, two public witnesses came forward weeks later to identify the adult accused arrested in the case and three more complaints were filed in the case, which were clubbed together by the police. One of the complaints was by the Imam of the mosque in question.