2020 Delhi riots pre-planned & premeditated, didn't take place in spur of the moment, says court
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The court, while observing the video footage submitted by the prosecution, said the riots were meticulously planned to disrupt normal life in the national capital.
While denying bail to one of the accused in the 2020 Delhi riots that claimed 53 lives and left more than 400 injured, the Delhi high court said the communal riots was “pre-planned and premeditated” intend to disturb law and order in the city.
Justice Subramonium Prasad made these remarks on Monday while denying the bail request of an accused, Mohammad Ibrahim, who was arrested in December in connection with the alleged murder of Delhi Police head constable Ratan Lal.
The court, while observing the video footage submitted by the prosecution, said the riots were meticulously planned to disrupt the normal life.
“The riots which shook the National Capital of the country in February 2020 evidently did not take place in a spur of the moment, and the conduct of the protestors who are present in the video footage which has been placed on record by the prosecution visibly portrays that it was a calculated attempt to dislocate the functioning of the government as well as to disrupt the normal
life of the people in the city," the Court said
.“This is also evident from the fact that innumerable rioters ruthlessly descended with sticks, dandas (batons), bats etc. upon a hopelessly outnumbered cohort of police officials,” the order stated.
Noting that the accused was identified on multiple CCTV footages, carrying a sword, and instigating the crowd, the court said that individual liberty cannot be misused in a manner that threatens the very fabric of civilised society by attempting to destabilise it and cause hurt to other persons.
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Even though the petitioner cannot be seen at the scene of crime, he was a part of the mob for the sole reason that the petitioner had consciously travelled 1.6 km away from his neighbourhood with a sword which could only be used to incite violence and inflict damage, the court said.
The petitioner, Ibrahim, was arrested in December 2020 and has been in judicial custody since then. He sought bail on the ground that he never participated in any protest or the riots at any point in time and the place on a record by the prosecution did not place him anywhere close to the scene of the crime.
The case pertains to a mob attack on police officers at Chand Bagh in northeast Delhi at the peak of the riots revolving around protests over a new citizenship law.
Ratan Lal, who was a part of the grossly outnumbered contingent of policemen, died of head injuries and another official was severely injured.
(With inputs from agencies)