Delhi riots acquittals: Hostile witnesses, unanswered questions & a ‘Kattar Hindu Ekta’ WhatsApp group

3 of the 9 murder cases involve the same set of accused. In these, all 12 Hindu men were acquitted by a Delhi court. Judgments in the remaining 6 cases are awaited.

Bodies of Aamir and Hashim in a van after their postmortem. The bodies was found in a drain on 26 Feb 2020. | File photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint

New Delhi: “Aane do, in m**** ka s*** bna denge (let these Muslims come, will thrash and reduce them to pigs); “Tumhare Bhai ne abhi 9 bje k krib b.vihar m 2 m**** mare hai (your brother killed two Muslims around 9 O’clock in Bhagirathi Vihar)”; “Pistol hai humare paas (we have pistols)”—these are some of the messages posted on the WhatsApp group ‘Kattar Hindu Ekta’ created on 25 February, 2020, during the peak of the Northeast Delhi riots that left at least 53 dead and scores of others injured.

Some of the group’s members and their WhatsApp chats—in which they have boasted about “killing Muslims”—formed the basis of the prosecution case in the murders of nine Muslim men who were allegedly intercepted by a mob, beaten up with sticks and iron rods, stoned and also attacked with swords. Their bodies were dumped in the Bhagirathi Vihar drain.

The nine cases lodged in the Gokulpuri Police Station have the same set of accused, except one additional accused in one case and two more in another case. Investigation revealed this group had discussed how Muslims need to be taught a “lesson”.

In three of these nine murder cases, all 12 Hindu men accused were acquitted by a Delhi court on 30 April, with the judge citing lack of substantive evidence, eyewitnesses and unanswered questions on the incidents. Judgments in the six remaining cases are awaited.

While acquitting the 12 men, Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Pulastya Pramachala said the chats in the WhatsApp group cannot be substantive evidence to establish their guilt. The court also said witness statements were confusing and there was a lack of eyewitnesses to the murders, or the identification of the accused. There was no evidence to say where the victims were intercepted and no clarity on which mob targeted them.

Among the victims is Babu Khan’s son Hashim, who was 19. Hashim and his brother Aamir were allegedly killed by a mob and their bodies dumped in the Bhagirathi Vihar drain on 26 February, 2020. Their bodies were found the next day.

According to the prosecution case, a mob screaming ‘Har Har Mahadev’ and ‘Jai Sri Ram’ had intercepted them while they were on their way home on their ‘Apache‘ motorbike and killed them. The judgment in Aamir’s case is awaited, in which 14 Hindu men are accused.

Then there are the cases of Bhure Ali and Aamin.

A series of acquittals and discharges has taken place in the Delhi riots cases and courts have repeatedly pulled up the Delhi Police over shoddy probes and erroneous chargesheets.

In one of the murder cases, one Arif Khan was accused by the Delhi Police of being part of a Hindu mob that allegedly killed three Muslim men. Khan was discharged and later acquitted of rioting charges. Four Hindu accused were also acquitted of murder charges.

ThePrint had earlier reported last year that out of the 757 cases lodged in connection with the Delhi riots, there have been 183 acquittals and 75 discharges; 53 murder cases were transferred to the Crime Branch, out of which 14 remain unsolved.

‘It could be a boast, without truth’

ASJ Pramachala noted in one of the acquittal orders that such social media messages and posts “may be put in the group solely with the intention of becoming heroes in the estimation of other members of the group and it could be a boast also, without truth”.

The court also observed that merely mentioning the killing of two Muslim men by the accused, Lokesh, does not constitute substantive evidence that he actually committed the murders.

At least three witnesses in the case were members of the WhatsApp group, and all of them turned hostile.

Another key prosecution witness, Narrottam Singh—a resident of Bhagirathi Vihar, where the rioting and murders occurred—was declared hostile in all three cases with regard to identifying the accused.

The testimony of another key witness, Nisar Ahmed, was also found to be “worthless” as he claimed he saw the accused in the mob at a different time than the time of the murders. He also didn’t vouch to have seen the murders. Ahmed was declared hostile on the aspect of identification of some of the accused.

The ASJ also noted that while the court is certain the murders took place, some aspects of the incident remain unclear—including the exact time and location of the killings, and where the victims were intercepted.

“Hence, it also becomes difficult to assume as to at what particular place and time such an incident had taken place. Whether it was a mob consisting of 5 or more persons (which could be termed as unlawful assembly), or otherwise. Such questions have remained unanswered in the evidence of this case,” the court noted in one of the orders.

(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)