Deepali Kalia-
Delhi Court has acquitted a man named Suresh of all the charges that had been levelled against him concerning rioting, dacoity and being a part of an unlawful assembly that had ransacked a shop amid the North East Delhi riots, last year.
Blatant inconsistencies in witnesses’ testimonies were observed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Amitabh Rawat. Even the identity of the accused could not be established in the present case.
“In the light of the testimonies of the said witnesses of the prosecution and their scrutiny, it is well apparent that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove its case, forget about beyond reasonable doubts. All the major witnesses are at variance with each other on material terms impacting the prosecution version”, the Court stated.
Further, the Court added that “As can be made out on the cumulative reading of the entire testimonies of all the witnesses, the identification of accused is not established at all. The investigation carried out is way short of the desired one.”
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The Court after hearing the witnesses’ testimonies said that, “It is not quantity but the quality of the testimony of the witnesses that matters in a criminal trial.”
It was observed by the Court that Bhagat Singh, the shop owner, had categorically denied that he could identify the person who had looted and destroyed the shop.
The Court consequently acquitted Suresh stating that “There is no testimony worth its salt, which connects the accused to the present offence in question.”
The FIR in the present case was registered based on the written complaint by the tenant of the shop, Asif, who had stated that on 25th February 2020, a huge mob carrying iron rods and lathis ransacked his shop.
The owner of the shop also gave a statement in which he said that some people among the crowd were inciting others to loot and destroy the said shop because the owner was a Muslim.
