Delhi court acquits first accused in riots case

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Tuesday passed the first judgment in connection with February 2020 northeast Delhi riots cases, acquitting an accused over allegations of rioting, unlawful assembly and dacoity. Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat, Karkardooma court, observed that the testimonies of the witnesses are in “complete contrast to each other,” and acquitted Suresh Bhatura, the sole accused.

ASJ Rawat further observed that the accused could not be identified, adding that it is a “clear cut case of acquittal.”

This is the first judgment in the case concerning the riots that broke out in north-east Delhi in February 2020 during the anti-caa protests.

On February 23 last year, supporters of the amended Citizenship

Act pelted stones on the people protesting against it in northeast Delhi’s Maujpur. A day later, riots broke out in various areas in the region and went on for nearly a week, with 53 people losing their lives.

According to police, Suresh along with a huge crowd of rioters, allegedly broke open the lock of a shop situated in Delhi’s Babarpur Road and looted it on the evening of February 25.

Suresh was arrested on April 7, 2020 and admitted on bail on February 25, 2021 after spending 10 months in Mandoli Jail.

On March 9, 2021, the court framed charges against him under sections 143 (punishment for unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 427 (mischief), 454 (lurking house-trespass) and section 395 (dacoity) of the IPC.