Muslim man misidentified as Hindu & accused of uncle's murder gets bail, court says no sense in police theory
New delhi: A Delhi court has now granted bail to a murder accused in two separate north-east Delhi riots related cases, noting that the Delhi Police's theory of the accused — a Muslim man — joining a Hindu mob to beat up three Muslim men to purportedly disguise himself was "very obfuscatory".
The court said it did not appeal to the senses that the accused would "rub shoulder to shoulder" with a mob comprising Hindu men in "such a surcharged atmosphere" and beat a Muslim boy to death.
Millennium Post had first reported on October 3 that the accused in the case — Arif was misidentified by the Delhi Police as a Hindu and chargesheeted alongside four other Hindu men for killing three Muslim men.
In the bizarre investigation conducted by the Delhi Police, they had first claimed Arif was a Hindu anti-CAA protester and had got "stuck" with a Hindu mob during the riots near the Brijpuri Pulia. To "save himself", the police claimed he "tied a handkerchief around his face and joined in beating the three Muslim men to death", one of whom was Arif's uncle Mehtaab. This was in relation to the death of 22-year-old Ashfaq Hussain, who was killed in the riots, the week after his wedding.
However, after this, other reports showed similar patterns in two of the other FIRs Arif was involved in. The chargesheet against Arif did not cite CCTV evidence and neither did it cite any witness statement identifying him as beating up people. CDR records were cited but Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav, while granting bail, said, "As regards the call detail record (CDR) location, it is relevant to mention here that applicant is resident of the same locality/area and as such, at this stage his CDR location being found at or around the spot is also not of much consequence to the prosecution."
The court noted, "It is very obfuscatory that a Muslim boy would become part of an 'unlawful assembly' which mostly consisted of members of the Hindu community, the common object whereof was to cause maximum damage to the property, life and limb(s) of the other community. So, prima facie, the applicant (Aarif) cannot be said to be part of 'unlawful assembly' or share 'common object' with them on the date of incident."
During the hearing, advocate Abdul Gaffar, appearing for Aarif, said he was falsely implicated in the case and there was no evidence on record except for his disclosure statement about him having attacked the deceased.
It further said eyewitnesses have not specifically spelt out the role of the accused in the matter and their statements prima facie appeared to be general ones.
