Jahangirpuri Riots: Delhi Court rejects bail of 8 accused, adds "complicity", if any, of police officials needs to be investigated
A Rohini Court on Saturday denied bail to eight persons accused of rioting in Jahangirpuri area of Delhi on the eve of Hanuman Jayanti, namely, Imteyaz, Noor Alam, Shiekh Hamid, Ahmad Ali, Sheikh Hamid, S.K. Sahahada, Sheikh Zakir and Ahir.
ASJ Gagandeep Singh while dismissing the application moved under Section 439 Cr.P.C for grant of regular bail to accused, noted that,
"The apprehension has been expressed by the prosecution that the public witnesses will not come forward as the rioters are known criminal of the area. Therefore, the apprehension of threatening/influencing the witnesses cannot be ruled at this stage, if the accused/applicant is enlarged on bail at this stage. The chargesheet is yet to be filed. The allegations are serious against the accused/applicant."
Advocate K. Prabhakara Rao, appearing for the accused had submitted before the court that the applicant had been falsely implicated and were lying in Judicial Custody since April 17, 2022.
"The accused persons/applicants belong to labour class and earning their livelihood with manual hard work. They were not even present at the spot on the date of incident. They were at their respective home...", he further argued.
On the other hand, Maqsood Ahmed, Chief PP for the State, submitted that FIR was registered on the statement of Inspector Rajiv Ranjan who stated that on April 16, 2022 when the procession was going peacefully and had reached near C Block Jama Masjid at about 6:00 p.m, one person namely Ansar along with his associates started arguing with the members of the procession which resulted in stampede and stonepelting.
"Rioters caused injuries to 8 police personnel including SI Meda Lal who sustained bullet injury in his left forearm. The rioters damaged the vehicles and set on fire a scooty...", Ahmed added.
The Court was further told that during the investigation, around 30 persons were arrested and three CCLs were apprehended. Ahmed also added that on the basis of CCTV footage and statement of eyewitnesses, the accused-applicants were arrested.
Noting that accused persons were identified on the basis of CCTV footage recorded on the day of incident and were also identified by eyewitnesses and that the material investigation was still underway and several offenders who were involved in the said unfortunate riots are yet to be apprehended, the Court ordered thus,
“I am of the considered view that no ground is made out for grant of bail to accused persons/applicants. Therefore, the applications moved on behalf of the accused persons/applicants stand dismissed.”
Also, on the Chief PP informing the Court that the last procession had no prior permission from the police and while the said procession was passing through, the unfortunate riots between two communities took place, the Court said, “If that was the situation , then the contents of the FIR itself, show that the local staff of police station Jahangir Puri, led by Inspector Rajiv Ranjan as well as other officials from DCP reserve were accompanying the said illegal procession on its route instead of stopping it.”
Furthermore, the Court remarked that local police instead of performing their duty in stopping the said illegal procession in the beginning itself and dispersing the crowd, was accompanying them to the entire route which later on led to unfortunate riots between the two communities.
ASJ Singh noted that this prima facie reflected the utter failure on part of local police and the issue seemed to have been simply brushed aside by the senior officers.
“The liability on the part of the concerned officials needs to be fixed so that in future no such incident takes place and the police is not complacent in preventing the illegal activities. Their complicity, if any, also needs to be investigated. A copy of this order be sent to the Worthy Commissioner of Police for information and remedial compliance”, accordingly ordered the Court.
Case Title: State vs. Imteyaz and others