A Delhi court has acquitted a man in a murder case related to the north-east Delhi riots of 2020.
The police had claimed that a half-charred body of a man, identified as Dilbar Negi, was found in a warehouse in Chaman Park on February 26, 2020 and that Mohammad Shahnawaz had murdered Negi by setting the warehouse on fire.
The court, in its order on February 24, noted that the prosecution’s case was not strong enough to consider the accused as guilty as there were major contradictions in the statements of the eyewitnesses. It also observed that neither was Mr. Shahnawaz’s name mentioned in the FIR, nor did the witnesses name him.
“The FIR was registered on February 28, 2020, and if the accused’s name was already within the knowledge of prosecution witness 9 (warehouse owner) since February 24, 2020 (the day of the incident), then he would have mentioned his name before the police during the registration of FIR,” the court added.
This story was originally published in thehindu.com.
