2020 Delhi riots: Court acquits 12 in Hashim Ali murder case
Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala of the Karkardooma Courts cleared all allegations against Lokesh Kumar Solanki, Pankaj Sharma, Ankit Chaudhary, Prince, Jatin Sharma, Himanshu Thakur, Vivek Panchal, Rishabh Chaudhary, Sumit Chaudhary, Tinku Arora, Sandeep and Sahil.
'I find that in the name of circumstantial evidence, there are some fragments and pieces of evidence, which fall much short to point out towards any of the accused persons as member of the culprit mob,' the judge said in the order.
According to witness accounts, the accused were seen carrying stones, sticks, swords, iron rods, and shouting slogans such as 'Jai Sri Ram' and 'Har Har Mahadev'. It was further claimed that these men were leading the mob and instructing others by calling out names.
As per the FIR, they were allegedly involved in the murder of nine Muslim men after checking their identities. Public witnesses had reportedly seen the killing of Hashim Ali. The prosecution alleged that the group conspired to 'teach Muslims a lesson' for attacks on Hindus.
They were said to have armed themselves with sticks, swords, firearms and more, and killed several, including Hashim Ali and his brother Aamir Khan. But the court found the evidence lacking in terms of identifying any of the accused as part of the mob that stopped the two brothers.
'In fact, except for PW1, no other witness claimed having seen any incident, which could be connected with incident with Hashim and Amir,' the court noted.
The judge also dismissed the prosecution's claim that WhatsApp messages linked Lokesh and others to the riots. 'However, I find that this plea is just a general presumption without support of substantive evidence. It shall be matter of analysis of other piece of circumstantial evidence, to see if the chain of all circumstances has been connected, to show involvement of Lokesh and others in the incident leading to death of Hashim,' the judge further said.
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