Editor Mr.Mayank Rawat ( Chief Editor Mr. Rohit Mishra )
New Delhi: A Delhi court acquitted 12 men accused of killing two persons in separate instances and throwing their bodies into a drain during the 2020 Delhi riots. The court observed that their conversation in a WhatsApp chat confessing to the murders did not constitute substantive evidence.
The court of additional sessions judge Pulastya Pramachala, in two separate judgments dated March 28, acquitted Lokesh Solanki and 11 others in cases related to the murders of Bhure Ali and Aamin, whose bodies were allegedly dumped in the Johripur and Bhagirathi drains in Gokalpuri.
The judge observed, “Such posts may be put in the group solely with the intention of becoming a hero in the estimation of other members of the group, also. It could be a boast, without truth also. Therefore, the relied-upon chats cannot be substantive evidence to show that accused Lokesh actually killed two Muslim persons. These chats, at the most, could be used as a corroborative piece of evidence as a support to the substantive evidence showing complicity of Lokesh in the alleged incident.”
The murders were part of a larger investigation into nine killings that occurred between the afternoon of Feb 25 and 26 in 2020. The bodies were discovered in the first week of March 2020, following which Delhi Police filed multiple chargesheets linking the crimes to a WhatsApp group named “Kattar Hindu Ekta”, where members allegedly discussed mobilising forces and procuring arms to target members of a different religious community.
Special public prosecutor Madhukar Pandey submitted before the court that the accused were part of this WhatsApp group and that chat transcripts contained confessions about killings and disposing of bodies.
According to the prosecution, Lokesh Solanki was identified as the first arrest in the case, and during interrogation, he named others involved in the conspiracy.
The prosecution relied on a message from Solanki in which he claimed responsibility for two murders near the Gokalpuri drain on the night of Feb 26.
The number from which the extra-judicial confession was made was issued in the name of accused Lokesh, submitted the SPP.
The judge, pointing out inconsistencies in the prosecution’s narrative, including the lack of eyewitness testimony and conflicting timelines regarding the murders, questioned the reliability of chat messages.
Referring to eight other cases in which the prosecution relied upon the same chats (in total nine cases) and almost the same set of accused persons (one additional accused being in one case and two additional accused being in another case) who were chargesheeted in these nine cases, the judge observed, “Accused in this case are accused in all these nine cases. Aforesaid chats purportedly refer to the killing of two persons in the night of Feb 26, 2020. But, the same has been used to support allegations of murder of nine people. In the present case, prosecution alleged time of murder at 10.30 am. This scenario itself shows that these chats cannot be related to the incident probed in this case.”
Mayank Rawat
