2020 Delhi riots: Court convicts five for rioting, assault on police

A court has convicted five men for rioting and assaulting police personnel in a case related to violence at a Bhajanpura petrol pump during the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, saying the prosecution has proved that the five were part of an unlawful mob that attacked policemen on duty. However, the court acquitted them of the charge of setting the petrol pump on fire, holding that there were “very serious doubts” about the prosecution’s claim that the mob had torched the fuel station.

Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh was hearing the case against Arif, Mohd Khalid, Abdul Sattar, Tanveer Ali, and Hunain.

In an order dated September 9, the court said, “This unlawful assembly attacked them by pelting stones upon them and ferocity of the attack was such that the police officials fled from the petrol pump by jumping over its wall, and used criminal force upon the public servants and obstructed them in discharge of their duty”.

The five were convicted under Section 147 (rioting), Section 152 (assaulting or obstructing a public servant suppressing a riot), Section 186 (obstructing a public servant in discharge of duty) and Section 353 (assault or criminal force to deter a public servant), all read with Section 149 IPC on unlawful assembly. 

The question of sentence will be argued separately. 

According to the prosecution, a call was received around 2 pm on February 24, 2020, about a large mob gathering at the Bhajanpura petrol pump, also known as Delhi Diesels, on Yamuna Vihar service road. 

Police personnel who rushed to the spot found 100 to 150 people, who had crossed over after breaking a road divider from the Chand Bagh side, raising slogans against the amended citizenship law.

The mob then turned violent, pelting stones, vandalising the pump’s machines, torching vehicles parked nearby and assaulting policemen, who were forced to flee by scaling the compound wall, the prosecution said. 

The prosecution examined 26 witnesses, and the court relied on eight, including five police witnesses and the pump’s employee, to hold that their accounts of the mob’s movement and conduct were mutually consistent and corroborated one another. 

The court also rejected a defence argument that these very witnesses had been disbelieved in a related case.

It noted that the discrepancy found there concerned an earlier time frame, and that the Latin maxim “false in one thing, false in everything” has no application in Indian law. 

The court held that the assembly, having gathered with the common object of committing riot, arson and vandalism, constituted an unlawful assembly under Section 141 IPC. This made its members liable under Section 149 IPC for offences committed in furtherance of that object. 

“It also stands proved that the unlawful assembly had voluntarily obstructed the police officials who were public servants discharging their duty. At the same time, by pelting stones upon them, this unlawful assembly had used criminal force upon them in order to prevent them from discharging their duty, which was maintaining the law and order,” the judge said.

On the arson allegation, the court found “very serious doubts”, noting that no witness described any major fire or explosion consistent with a working petrol pump catching fire. The pump’s own owner and an employee, examined as prosecution witnesses, did not support this part of the case. 

The court also noted a Delhi Fire Service record of a call regarding a fire at the pump timed at 8.45 am the following day.

It found the prosecution had withheld this from the record without explanation, terming it a matter that “raises serious questions” about the prosecution’s conduct. 

The court additionally acquitted the accused of causing hurt to several injured witnesses, saying that the timelines of their injuries did not match the period during which this mob was active at the petrol pump. 

They were also acquitted of a charge under Section 188 IPC for violating prohibitory orders, since the prosecution had not proved that the order was adequately publicised. 

The violence at Bhajanpura was part of the wider riots that broke out in northeast Delhi on February 24-25, 2020, amid protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, in which 53 people were killed and hundreds injured.