HC notice on Sharukh Pathan's bail plea, status report sought in 4 weeks

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued notice in the bail plea filed by Shahrukh Pathan, the man seen pointing a gun at cops during the north-east Delhi riots, in a separate rioting case after his lawyer alleged that the police was trying to implicate him in the second case based on evidence from another case.

Justice Subramonium Prasad also sought a status report of the investigation in the current case and directed that it be filed within four weeks, posting the matter for next hearing on March 16.

Shahrukh's bail plea in the current case reached the Delhi High Court after a Sessions Court here had rejected it holding that CCTV footage and Call Detail Records showed his presence at the crime scene.

Advocate Khalid Akhtar appeared for Shahrukh in the case on Thursday and submitted that there was a clear discrepancy between the victim's statement and his MLC report about the time at which he was allegedly shot. He added that this client had been in custody for nearly two years now, was not in any position to influence the probe and that the trial would take a considerable amount of time to be concluded.

Shahrukh's counsel went on to note that since Shahrukh was accused in two separate cases, the investigating agency was allegedly trying to implicate him in the current case based on materials from the other one.

The current case is one of rioting, causing injuries to police personnel and inflicting a gunshot injury to one Rohit Shukla during the riots in February 2020. Shukla had in one statement said that he was near where the rioting was taking place on February 24 and that there were two groups of people, on of which was protesting against the CAA and the NRC and shouting "allahuakbar". However, he said that "the unlawful assembly" turned violent and started pelting stones and one person held a pistol and shot at him.

In another statement, Shukla said that at another location where rioting was taking place, a 24-25-year-old man stepped out of the violent mob with a pistol and shot at him, following which he received injuries.