Man granted bail as court notes 'gaping hole' in witness statement

New delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday granted bail to a man in a case related to the north-east Delhi riots this February, saying there was a "gaping hole" in the eyewitness statement recorded by the police.

Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat granted relief to Gurmeet Singh on furnishing a bail bond of Rs 20,000 with one surety of like amount in the case related to causing grievous bullet injury to one Rizwan on February 25 at the Kardam Puri Pulia during the riots.

The court said Singh was arrested in the case from the Mandoli jail and so the question of how eyewitness Rafiq had identified the accused by his face remained unanswered.

It also noted that the CCTV footage was not of the place of the incident but around the place of occurrence of the riots. The court further noted that Rafiq's statement was recorded on February 24, whereas the crime is alleged to have occurred the next day.

According to Rafiq's statement under section 161 (examination by police) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, he was a vegetable seller and on February 25, 2020, while he was selling vegetables in the Kardam Puri Puliya area, communal riots took place and he saw that unlawful assembly of Hindus was beating some Muslims and some unknown persons were firing and rioting, it said.

The prosecution relies upon an eyewitness namely Rafiq. He was able to identify 5-6 people including the present accused Gurmeet, as among the rioters, as he knew them and had seen them in the nearby area but does not know their

address.

"The applicant (Singh) was not arrested, in the present case, on the instance of any witness but was formally arrested at Mandoli Jail. If that is so, then how the witness Rafiq has identified the accused by his face, is still anyone's guess. There is a gaping hole between the two aspects," it said in its order. It also said that victim Rizwan had not seen the attacker in the riotous mob.