2 weeks ago
Court acquits 13 in 2020 riots case over tainted testimony
In a courtroom, a judge has to decide if people accused of a crime are guilty.
In this case, 13 people were accused of taking part in riots in Delhi in 2020.
A man named Raman Chauhan said he was attacked, but he could not identify his attackers.
A witness first told police he had seen nothing.
Later, the same witness said he saw everything on a security camera video.
The judge thought changing his story made the witness hard to trust.
The video was also very dark and blurry, so faces could not be seen clearly.
The people who study evidence called it too poor to identify anyone.
Because the evidence was so weak, the judge said it was safer to let the 13 people go free.
That decision is called an acquittal.
A New Delhi court acquitted 13 accused in a case related to the 2020 northeast Delhi riots.
Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh said the key prosecution witness's testimony was under a 'shadow of doubt' and unsafe to rely upon.
The court found the CCTV footage - black-and-white, dark and grainy - too poor to establish the identity of the accused.
The case related to the alleged attack on Raman Chauhan on February 25, 2020, in the New Usmanpur police station area.
The witness had initially said he did not witness the incident but later appeared as an eyewitness identifying two accused from CCTV footage.
- Who
- Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh, who acquitted 13 accused; the complainant was Raman Chauhan.
- What
- 13 accused were acquitted in a 2020 northeast Delhi riots case because the key witness's testimony and CCTV evidence were deemed unreliable.
- Where
- New Delhi; the incident took place in the New Usmanpur police station area.
- When
- The verdict was delivered recently; the incident occurred on February 25, 2020.
- Why
- The witness's testimony was under a shadow of doubt and the CCTV footage was too poor to establish the identity of the accused.
Key facts
- Court
- Sessions Court, New Delhi (Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh)
- Verdict
- Acquittal of all 13 accused
- Number of accused
- 13
- Incident date
- February 25, 2020
- Incident location
- New Usmanpur police station area, northeast Delhi
- Complainant
- Raman Chauhan
- Charges faced
- Rioting, rioting with deadly weapons, attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy, disobedience of an order promulgated by a public servant
- Evidence issues
- Witness's contradictory testimony; poor black-and-white CCTV footage; FSL could not give an opinion on facial identification
Quotes
Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh
Judge of New Delhi Sessions Court
“Considering the fact that this witness had suddenly become an eyewitness and in view of the above discussion that the testimony of PW8 as an eyewitness is under a shadow of doubt, it will be unsafe to rely upon the testimony of PW8 (prosecution witness 8),”
thehansindia.com
Sources
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