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The Delhi high Court today continued hearing bail applications of 11 accused in the Delhi Riots case.

Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad appearing for Delhi Police today shared a video where an accused named Mohd Arif was shown to be allegedly hiding sticks and diverting the CCTV cameras which according to the Police was done to prevent “the  crime” being captured in the camera.

ASG SV Raju submitted that different witnesses had identified the 11 accused to be present at the crime scene. He further submitted that it was a herculean task to identify each and every accused through the videos.

He further argued that “If an accused is seen in the video it is a plus point but if a person is not in the video that cannot be a test to prove that he is not an accused. It is not a simple case, it is a case under s. 302.”

ASG Raju submitted that it was a preplanned offence. “Meetings were held prior to the commission of the offence. In the meeting it was decided to use lathi and dandas hence it was a preplanned meeting. The video corroborates the evidence as large number of people are coming with sticks. Therefore conspiracy has been established. Pursuant to this meeting if you are with a mob, it means you have joined the mob. The small contingent of police and a large number of people in the video says that it was a frontal attack by the mob on the police. Their purpose was not only to protest against CAA but to cause violence.”

On Justice Subramonium Prasad’s query that only A few of them must have gone to create violence and therefore some may have carried weapons to protect themselves ASJ Raju submitted that the witnesses have stated that the weapons were used against the Police where one of the accused had hit a constable with a stick.

He further submitted that “ If persons had gone for the purpose of protecting themselves they would not have covered the CCTV Cameras. It was covered to destroy evidence. This pinpoints at the common object of an unlawful assembly.”

When the bench enquired of the application of the triple test for grant of bail, ASG raju submitted that as per the Supreme Court Judgement in Gurcharan Singh vs State in case of an offence where sentence is for life bail is not to be granted.

Case Title: batch of Petitions