Witness statements doubtful; no visual evidence: Court grants bail to 3 riots accused

new delhi: Observing that the testimony given by public witnesses appears to be doubtful, a Delhi court on Wednesday granted bail to three men accused of alleged vandalism and arson during the riots that broke out in north-east Delhi in February this year.

Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav, in his order, noted that the applicants, Shah Alam, Rashid Saifi and Mohd. Shadab, represented by Advocate Dinesh Tiwari, have "neither been named in the FIR nor there are any specific allegations against them by any of the complainants".

Casting doubt over the identification of the accused by Beat Constable Pawan, the court said that he failed to provide a plausible theory as to why he waited for a period of 40 days to record his statements about the incident in front of an Investigating Officer (IO).

ASJ Yadav further stated that the statements of the public eye-witnesses have been recorded recently, much after the filing of the chargesheet. "From among the riotous mob consisting of several hundred persons, the investigating agency has only been able to identify and chargesheet these three applicants only," the order read.

ASJ Yadav also stated that there is no CCTV footage or videos on record to establish the presence of the accused at the spot of the

incident.

"It is further relevant to note here that the applicants are residents of the same locality and as such, it is not surprising that their CDR location is being depicted at or around the scene of crime on the date of incident," the court said.

The FIR in the present case, apart from the other clubbed cases of similar nature, involves alleged vandalism and arson of a shop of one Om Singh in Karawal Nagar on

February 24.