A Delhi court has acquitted five men who were on trial for rioting, vandalism and arson at the Allah Wali mosque in Karawal Nagar during the northeast Delhi riots of February 2020. Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh of the Karkardooma court held, in an order dated October 31, that the prosecution had not proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
What the prosecution alleged
The case, registered as FIR 104/2020 at the Karawal Nagar police station, accused the five of being part of a mob of about 200 people that attacked the mosque in SBS Colony and set it on fire at around 11 am on February 25, 2020. The prosecution also alleged that a statue was placed on the slab outside the mosque. The men faced charges including rioting with a deadly weapon, unlawful assembly and arson, and the prosecution examined 14 witnesses during the trial.
Why the court did not believe the police account
Only two witnesses, both police personnel, spoke of an attack on the mosque at 11 am that day. The judge found their version sharply at odds with the evidence of an independent witness who lives directly across the road from the mosque.
That resident told the court the mosque was vandalised and set alight only once, at about 8.15 pm, and that he then stayed shut inside his house for around four days. His testimony on this point was not challenged. The court reasoned that if a second attack had taken place, he would have seen it from his home, and concluded that it was probable no arson or vandalism happened at the mosque at 11 am on February 25. In that case, the judge said, the two policemen could not have seen the accused committing those acts.
The court also noted that the same two officers had testified in another case that they were at a school in Karawal Nagar, rescuing people, between 10 am and 11 am that morning. One officer’s claim that he had rescued the resident and his family was contradicted by the resident’s own account. The officers also repeatedly mixed up the identities of the accused while viewing video footage during the trial.
Video evidence ruled out
The DVDs supplied by the forensic science laboratory were held inadmissible because they did not carry a valid certificate under Section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act, which is required before electronic records can be relied on in court. Citing Supreme Court rulings on the point, the judge said the certificate on record did not mention the details of the computer system, and the person who issued it had no control over the data he provided. As a result, the contents of the footage could not be considered at all.
Why it matters
The communal violence in northeast Delhi in late February 2020 claimed 53 lives and caused widespread damage to property. More than six years later, cases arising from it are still being decided at Karkardooma, and this verdict turned on the reliability of police witnesses and on how investigators handled electronic evidence. Last month, the same court convicted former councillor Tahir Hussain of rioting in a separate case while acquitting 12 others.
The prosecution can challenge the acquittal before the Delhi High Court.
