HC calls 2020 Delhi riots 'a pre-meditated conspiracy'

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Monday refused to grant bail to an accused in a case concerning the northeast Delhi riots of 2020, saying that there was "pre-planned and pre-meditated conspiracy to disturb law and order in the city" and events "did not take place in a spur of the moment".

Justice Subramonium Prasad, while dealing with a bail application moved by one Mohd Ibrahim in the case concerning the alleged murder of Delhi Police head constable Ratan Lal, observed that there was a systematic disconnection and destruction of the CCTV cameras in areas near the place of the incident and "innumerable rioters ruthlessly descended with sticks, dandas, bats, etc. upon a hopelessly outnumbered cohort of police officials".

"The riots which shook the National Capital of the country in February 2020 evidently did not take place in a spur of the moment, and the conduct of the protestors who are present in the video footage which has been placed on record by the prosecution visibly portrays that it was a calculated attempt to dislocate the functioning of the Government as well as to disrupt the normal life of the people in the city," the court said.

"The systematic disconnection and destruction of the CCTV cameras also confirm the existence of a preplanned and pre-meditated conspiracy to disturb law and order in the city," it added.

Dismissing the bail application of Ibrahim, the court stated that the available video footage showing the petitioner with the sword was "quite egregious" and sufficient to keep him in custody.