A Delhi court on Wednesday granted bail to three persons arrested in connection with the north-east Delhi riots and asked the investigating agency why it has been able to identify and chargesheet only the three persons from a riotous mob of several hundred people.
Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav, while granting bail to Shah Alam, Rashid Saifi and Mohd. Shadab, in a combined order, asked why the beat constable, who claimed to have categorically seen and identified the three accused indulging in the riots on February 24, waited for 40 days to record his statement.
“There is a gap of about 40 days between the date of incident and recording of statement of the beat constable by the Investigating Officer [IO] and no plausible explanation in this regard has been given by the IO,” the Judge said.
“What stopped the beat constable from reporting the matter then and there in the police station or from bringing it to the knowledge of senior police officers? This casts a serious doubt on the credibility of this witness,” the court rmarked.
No CCTV footage or viral video capturing the presence of the trio at the crime scene on the date of incident is available on record.
The judge also noted that the three men were neither named in the FIR nor were there are any specific allegations against them.
The court further noted that statements of public eyewitnesses have been recorded by the IO recently — a long time after filing of the chargesheet.
The court said that the three persons “cannot be incarcerated in jail for infinity merely because other persons, who were part of the riotous mob, have to be identified and arrested in the matter”.
