New Delhi [India], March 31: The Karkardooma Court has acquitted 12 individuals in two separate murder cases related to the North East Delhi Riots of February 2020.
In one of the cases, a body was identified using a DNA test, and Delhi Police had relied on chat records to implicate Lokesh Solanki in the alleged crime. However, the court concluded that the chats could not be considered substantive evidence to establish that Solanki had murdered the two deceased persons.
Two FIRs were filed at Police Station Gokul Puri, accusing the individuals of offenses including rioting, murder, unlawful assembly, and destruction of evidence. After examining the facts and circumstances, Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala acquitted all the accused persons in both cases on March 28, stating, “In view of my foregoing discussions, observations, and findings, I find that charges leveled against the accused persons in this case are not proved at all.”
The accused individuals, including Lokesh Kumar Solanki, Pankaj Sharma, Ankit Chaudhary, Prince, Jatin Sharma alias Rohit, Himanshu Thakur, Vivek Panchal alias Nandu, Rishabh Chaudhary alias Tapas, Sumit Chaudhary alias Badshah, Tinku Arora, Sandeep alias Mogli, and Sahil alias Babu, were acquitted of all charges.
Delhi Police had presented chats from a group as evidence, but the court found these chats to be unreliable and speculative. The chats referred to the killing of two individuals on February 26, 2020, but they were also used in other cases involving the deaths of nine people. The court pointed out that the alleged time of murder at 10:30 AM made it difficult to relate the chats to the events being investigated in this case.
Additionally, the court emphasized that such messages could simply be attempts to gain favor in the group or boastful claims rather than reliable evidence. Consequently, the chats were deemed insufficient to prove the accused’s involvement in the murders.
The chargesheet included details of two separate murders. One victim, Bhure Ali alias Salman, was identified by his family after his decomposed body was found in a drain. The other victim, Amin, was allegedly killed by rioters and thrown into a drain on February 25, 2020. However, the court found no conclusive evidence to link the accused individuals to the mobs responsible for the killings, further reinforcing its decision to acquit the defendants.