New Delhi, A court has convicted five men for rioting and assaulting police personnel in a case related to violence at a Bhajanpura petrol pump during the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, saying the prosecution has proved that the five were part of an unlawful mob that attacked policemen on duty.
“It also stands proved that the unlawful assembly had voluntarily obstructed the police officials who were public servants discharging their duty. The prosecution examined 26 witnesses, and the court relied on eight, including five police witnesses and the pump’s employee, to hold that their accounts of the mob’s movement and conduct were mutually consistent and corroborated one another.
However, the court acquitted them of the charge of setting the petrol pump on fire, holding that there were “very serious doubts” about the prosecution’s claim that the mob had torched the fuel station. In an order dated September 9, the court said, “This unlawful assembly attacked them by pelting stones upon them and ferocity of the attack was such that the police officials fled from the petrol pump by jumping over its wall, and used criminal force upon the public servants and obstructed them in discharge of their duty”. At the same time, by pelting stones upon them, this unlawful assembly had used criminal force upon them in order to prevent them from discharging their duty which was maintaining the law and order,” the judge said.
The court also noted a Delhi Fire Service record of a call regarding a fire at the pump timed at 8.45 am the following day. Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh was hearing the case against Arif, Mohd Khalid, Abdul Sattar, Tanveer Ali, and Hunain. The pump’s own owner and an employee, examined as prosecution witnesses, did not support this part of the case.
On the arson allegation, the court found “very serious doubts”, noting that no witness described any major fire or explosion consistent with a working petrol pump catching fire.
