The Crime Branch of the Delhi Police on Thursday filed a 2,063-page charge sheet in the northwest Delhi's Jahangirpuri riots case alleging the violence was in continuation of the protests against CAA and NRC of 2019 and also the North-East Delhi riots of February 2020.
The chargesheet also mentions Ram Navmi incidents on April 10 in different parts of the country that further aggravated the communal tension between communities.
Violence in Jahangirpuri broke out on April 16 during the Hanuman Jayanti procession.
The police has filed the chargesheet against 45 people under various charges, including criminal conspiracy, 147 (rioting), an attempt to murder and assaulting a public servant, and obstructing him/her in the discharge of their public functions, punishable under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the provisions of Arms Act.
The chargesheet named 37 accused who were arrested in the matter, along with eight accused who are still at large. A total of nine firearms, five live cartridges, two empty cartridges, nine swords, and the clothes of 11 accused persons worn at the time of the incident and seen in videos have been recovered. According to chargesheet, the CCTV footage of 28 cameras of Public Works Department (PWD) installed around Kushal Cinema Road, 30 cameras of PWD installed around C-Block, Jahangirpuri were obtained and analysed.
“A total of 34 viral videos and 56 videos from electronic media were collected and analysed. Police have arrested 20 out of 37 accused who have been captured in CCTV footage and viral videos.
“The help of technology has been taken for the identification of accused persons,” the chargesheet stated. “Total numbers of 21 mobile phones were seized from accused persons. Total 132 witnesses were examined out of which 85 police and 47 public persons including doctors and others,” stated the chargesheet.
Police said the police investigation report (PIR) against two juveniles had been already filed before the Principal, Juvenile Justice Board.
“A total number of 13 teams were deployed for verifying background details of accused persons, dump data, technical (FRS) analyses, viral videos collections, CCTV footage collection, financial aspect and conspiracy angel,” stated the chargesheet.
Police in its chargesheet have also shared the names of eight wanted persons. As per chargesheet, Sanwar Kalia, Saddam Khan, Salman alias Suleman, Ashanoor, Ishrafil, Jahangir, Hasmat alias Asmat and Sheikh Sikander, all residents of Jahangirpuri area are in the list of wanted.
Even as the communal tension in the area was at its peak, the BJP ruled civic agencies began anti-encroachment drive in the violence-hit Jahangirpuri area. The JCB first demolished a tobacconist’s shop and then proceeded further to demolish another juice-cum-tobacco vendor next to it. A double storey scrap dealer's shop was also razed to the ground.
The residents in the vicinity of the demolition drive could be seen watching from the rooftops and the windows of their houses. Several expressed their resentment over the government's strict action. On February 24, 2020, the communal violence had broken out in northeast Delhi after clashes between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled, leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured. Overall 1818 persons have been arrested so far in 400 FIRs.
On September 16, 2020, the 17,000-page charge sheet filed on gave the sequence of events leading to large scale violence in which former JNU student Umar Khalid and his junior in the university Sharjeel Imam were part of the alleged conspiracy along with their associates to incite communal feelings of a particular community and instigate students of a particular community against the CAA and the state.
In December 2019, after CAA was passed replacing the Citizenship Act, 1955, to fast-track the grant of Indian citizenship to members of the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities from the Muslim-majority nations of Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, scores of people protested for more than 100 days in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh area.