The Delhi Police on Wednesday filed a third supplementary charge sheet against several accused persons booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for allegedly hatching a conspiracy to orchestrate the north-east Delhi riots.
The police informed additional sessions judge Amitabh Rawat that the forensic lab results on acid attacks on police personnel and voice samples of accused Asif Iqbal Tanha are part of the new charge sheet.
Special public prosecutor Amit Prasad, appearing for the police, said the supplementary charge sheet pertained to meetings held by the alleged instigators prior to the violence that took place in February 2020.
The police also said that they have added two sections 326A ( grievous hurt from acid) and 326B (punishment for acid attack) , along with the other relevant sections.
Communal violence broke out in north-east Delhi on February 24 after clashes between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control, leaving at least 53 people dead and around 400 injured.
This is the fourth charge sheet in the larger conspiracy case pertaining to the riots.
The first charge sheet, comprising 17,500 pages, was filed in September 2020 against Pinjra Tod members and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, Jamia Millia Islamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha, Gulfisha Khatoon, former Congress councillor Ishrat Jahan, Jamia coordination committee members Safoora Zargar, Meeran Haider, Shafa-Ur-Rehman, suspended AAP councillor Tahir Hussain, activist Khalid Saifi, Shadab Ahmed, Tasleem Ahmed, Salim Malik, Mohd Salim Khan and Athar Khan — for allegedly being part of a larger conspiracy in the riots.
This was followed by the first supplementary charge sheet in November 2020 in which JNU student Sharjeel Imam former JNU student Umar Khalid and Faizan Khan were booked for offences under UAPA and several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including murder, rioting, unlawful assembly, sedition and criminal conspiracy.
A second supplementary charge sheet was filed in February 2021.
In their charge sheets, the police have claimed that in the initial days of the sit-in protest (against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act), those who occupied the roads were not local residents, but were people from outside.
Police also said before starting the protest at Shaheen Bagh, Imam and his accomplices had distributed pamphlets with misinformation, mobilised imams from nearby mosques and made announcements on the public address system. Police had also claimed that Imam “threatened local residents with dire consequences if they opposed the road block”.
The trial in the case is yet to begin. Currently, the court has been hearing the bail applications of several accused.
This article first appeared on hindustantimes.com
