The Delhi police on Monday filed a chargesheet in two cases related to the alleged murder of Head Constable Rattan Lal during the north-east Delhi riots in February.
The Crime Branch of Delhi Police filed the 925-page chargesheet before Metropolitan Magistrate Rakesh Kumar Rampuri who put up the matter for consideration on June 22.
The 925-page chargesheet has been filed based on statements of eyewitnesses, video evidence collected from varied sources, including CCTV cameras and other technical evidence, including call detail records
One chargesheet has named 17 persons, including Shahrukh Mallick, Mohd Yunus, Mohd Ayub, Mohd Danish, Mohd Arif, Jalaluddin, Mohd Ibrahim, Mohd Nasir, Imran Ansari and Mohd Adil, as accused who allegedly were part of a mob that attacked the police force on the main Wazirabad road, Chand Bagh, in north-east Delhi on February 24.
The other was filed against six persons for murder, rioting, unlawful assembly, promoting enmity between groups.
All the accused are in judicial custody in the case.
The police have listed 164 witnesses in the chargesheet.
Wazirabad protests
According to the chargesheet, during investigation, it emerged that the sit-in protests at Wazirabad since mid-January was used as a “spring board to propel riots”. The ensuing riots snowballed into fierce rioting in various pockets of the north-east district and initially one community remained aggressive on February 24 which was followed by violent reactions from the other community on the next day, the police alleged.
Investigation revealed that there was a “deep-rooted conspiracy” which triggered the riots, the chargesheet said. It further said that the probe has established that the riots were not impromptu but were conspired with an intent to create communal strife, to malign the image of the country under the garb of democratically opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act.
While explaining the sequence of events that led to the riots and the killing of officer Lal, a senior police officer said that the probe revealed that “an atmosphere was created” over a period of time to instigate people against the CAA. Subsequently, the officer said, a “chakka jaam” was planned to increase momentum of the movement and “when the opportune moment arrived when U.S. President Donald Trump was in India”, the first thing that was done was block 66 Foota Road and Wazirabad Road, impacting thousands of people.
“For hours, the road was blocked and the police did not anticipate it. They were successful when they got media attention. On February 23 night, meetings were held at all protest points to ‘come prepared’ for the next day”.
The conspirators caused disruption by dual scheme of spreading misinformation on the CAA and road blockade, which triggered communal violence, the police said.
Officers attacked
When the mob attacked police officers on February 24, DCP (Shahdara) Amit Kumar Sharma, ACP (Gokulpuri) Anuj Kumar and other police officers suffered serious injuries. According to the FIR, the mob had then chased injured police officers into Mohan Nursing Home and vandalised it.
Another FIR registered in the connection with the violence said that after attacking police officers, the rioters had barged into a building on the main Wazirabad road near the protest site and had thrown stones and fired gunshots from its rooftop. One of the rioters, Shahid, who was present at the rooftop, was killed of a gunshot injury, the second FIR had said. The police chargesheeted six persons, including Chand Mohd, Raiees Khan, Mohd Firoz, Sajid, in the case.
