New Delhi:
A court here on Wednesday granted anticipatory bail to a man in connection with a case related to the north east Delhi riots and directed the police to give one week notice to him if they wished to arrest him.
Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav said Darshan Singh has not been seen in the alleged video of the incident or identified by any independent witnesses in the case of rioting, looting and torching of a shop in Khajuri Khas area.
The court said there was dispute and discord among complainant Yakub and Singh with regard to payment of electricity charges.
Yakub was a tenant in a shop owned by Singh’s father.
Admittedly, prior to eruption of communal riots, complainant Yakub had been the tenant in the shop, which belongs to father of the applicant (Singh). It is further not in dispute that there has been discord among the parties with regard to payment of rent/electricity charges qua the tenanted shop. I have gone through the video furnished by the investigating agency. The applicant is not seen in the video.
The applicant is a permanent resident of Karawal Nagar, Delhi. He is not a previous convict. Without commenting on the merits of the prosecution case, I am of the view that the applicant deserves indulgence from this court in this matter, the judge said in his order.
The court further said that since he has already joined the investigation, it will be in the interest of justice that he continued to join the investigation.
Further, the applicant (Singh) shall cooperate in the investigation and shall make himself available for interrogation by police officer, as and when required. In case the IO (investigating officer) wishes to arrest the applicant in the matter, he will give clear notice of one week to the applicant, so that he could avail of remedies available to him in accordance with law, it said.
During the hearing held through video conferencing, advocate R K Kochar, appearing for Singh, alleged that he was a victim of circumstances and has been falsely implicated in the matter by the police in connivance with complainant Yakub just to extort money from his father.
The advocate further said that Yakub did not pay rent and electricity charges for the last two and a half years and the electricity connection in the tenanted shop was cut by the concerned authorities.
He claimed that Singh has been receiving phone calls from the officials of Khajuri Khas police station, who have threatened to arrest him in the matter.
The advocate said that the police officials have also visited Singh’s house several times in the case.
Special Public Prosecutor Jinendera Jain, appearing for the police, told the court that Singh had joined the investigation and had fully cooperated with the investigating officer.
The public prosecutor further said that a video footage of the incident was provided by complainant Yakub, in which Singh’s brother can be categorically seen being part of the riotous mob that had looted valuable articles from Yakub’s shop.
Jain argued that if Singh was granted anticipatory bail in the case, there was every chance that he might use it as a tool to threaten the complainant and tamper with the evidence.
Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.
