The Delhi High Court has declined bail to two persons who were arrested in a Delhi riots case related to the recovery of a 15-year-old boy’s body from a drain in Gokulpuri.
Justice Mukta Gupta said in view of the witnesses, who saw the petitioners, Ankit Chaudhary and Rishabh Chaudhary, assault people of another religious community, no ground for their release was made out.
The High Court said since the petitioners resided in the vicinity of the place of the crime, their “tower location” as per call records was not sufficient to conclude that the petitioners were not present at the spot as they may have left phones at their residences.
As per the prosecution, the boy’s body, recovered from the drain on March 1, 2020, had injury marks on the backside of the head. The father of the deceased identified the body by the clothes on March 13, 2020, it said. The HC took into account the statement of an eyewitness, that some people, including the petitioners, had gathered near a bridge and attacked passers-by with sticks, rods and stones and thereafter, threw the body in the drain.
“It is evident that the three witnesses have clearly identified the two petitioners with the other accused who were present at the spot and were looking at the IDs of each and every person and on being identified from the other religion, the said passers-by were being assaulted. Since the accused have been named in statements of the witnesses, no TIP was required to be performed of the accused,” the court said.
The court, after perusing the testimony of the witnesses, opined that prima facie, there was no material contradictions in the statement of the witnesses.
“Considering the nature of evidence against the two petitioners, particularly the ocular testimony of the witnesses who are local residents, this court finds no ground to grant regular bail to the petitioners. Petitions are dismissed,” Justice Gupta ordered.
Mr. Ankit’s counsel had argued that there was a material contradiction in the statements of witnesses and the cell location of his client did not show him present at the place of incident. It was also argued that there was no recovery from the petitioner and there was no CCTV footage to shows his involvement in the alleged offence.
Mr. Rishabh also claimed that the evidence was manipulated. He said he was not a member of a WhatsApp group ‘Kattar Hindu Ekta’ whose participants were implicated in FIRs concerning the recovery of several dead bodies from the drain.
