No evidence yet of Kapil Mishra, Anurag Thakur other politicians instigating Delhi riots: Cops to HC
New Delhi: Investigations into the northeast Delhi riots have not revealed any evidence till now that political leaders instigated or participated in the violence that claimed at least 53 lives, the police told the high court on Monday.
The submission to the Delhi High Court has come in response to pleas alleging that BJP leaders Kapil Mishra, Anurag Thakur, Parvesh Verma, and Abhay Verma gave hate speeches, which led to the violence.
Another plea had alleged that Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, as well as AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Amanatullah Khan, and AIMIM MLA Waris Pathan also gave hate speeches.
In response to these pleas, the police, in its affidavit, has said: "It is submitted that during the investigations conducted so far in all the aforesaid matters related to north-east Delhi riots, no actionable evidence has yet surfaced indicating any role being played by the persons named in the writ petitions in instigating and/or participating in the riots."
The affidavit was placed before a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan on Monday, and the court listed the matter for further hearing on July 21.
In its affidavit, the police said that it "acted promptly, vigilantly and effectively without any fear or favor as a result of which violence could be contained in a few days and could be confined to a limited area".
It said its prima facie investigations revealed that this was not a case of any sporadic or spontaneous violence "but appears to be a part of a well thought of conspiracy to destabilize the harmony in the society".
The police said the investigation conducted so far "is pointing towards a wider and a larger conspiracy and concerted attempts of creating a disruption of law and order situation in the national capital territory of Delhi through violent means by disrupting communal harmony in the state and to perpetrate chaos in the society.".
It said the incidents of violence were not instigated in a spur of the moment or because of any tensions between two communities, "but were carefully engineered and funded by mischievous elements and fringe groups, who in pursuit of their motivated hidden agendas, instilled a false fear and panic in the minds of a section of society and provoked/instigated them to take law and order in their hands".
The affidavit said exercising the fundamental right of dissent was and should be respected, but no person could be allowed to commit breach of law, indulge in violence, arson and riotous activity causing danger to life, limb and property of innocent citizens under the garb of exercise of fundamental right of free speech and assembly.
It alleged that the petitioners had not come to court with "clean hands" as "they have selectively chosen certain speeches and incidents to further their hidden agenda".
The police claimed that the petitions were "motivated" as the petitioners had shown "selective outrage" at some incidents, while ignoring other instances of violence.
Apart from seeking action against those who allegedly gave the hate speeches, the pleas have also sought other reliefs, which include setting up of an SIT, FIRs against police officers who were allegedly involved in the violence and disclosure of persons arrested and detained.
In its response to these prayers, police said it had already created three special investigation teams (SITs) under the crime branch and there was no evidence till now that its officers were involved in the violence.
It added that the families of people arrested and detained in connection with the riots had been informed.
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Actress sexual assault: Court says Prosecution 'miserably' failed to prove conspiracy against Dileep
Kochi (PTI): The prosecution had "miserably" failed to prove the conspiracy charge against Dileep in the sensational 2017 actress sexual assault case, a local court has observed while citing inconsistencies and lack of sufficient evidence against the Malayalam star.
The full judgement of Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Court Judge Honey M Varghese was released late on Friday, and has revealed the judge also pointing out at unsustainable arguments put forth by the prosecution.
"The prosecution miserably failed to prove the conspiracy between accused No.1 (Pulsar Suni) and accused No.8 (Dileep) in executing the offence against the victim," the court held.
It examined in detail, the prosecution's allegation that Dileep had hired the prime accused to sexually assault the survivor and record visuals, including close-up footage of a gold ring she was wearing, to establish her identity.
On page 1130 of the judgment, under paragraph 703, the court framed the issue as whether the prosecution's contention that NS Sunil (Pulsar Suni) recorded visuals of the gold ring worn by the victim at the time of the occurrence, so as to clearly disclose her identity, was sustainable.
The prosecution contended Dileep and Suni had planned the recording so that the actress' identity would be unmistakable, with the video of the gold ring intended to convince Dileep that the visuals were genuine.
However, the court noted that this contention was not stated in the first charge sheet and was introduced only in the second one.
As part of this claim, a gold ring was seized after the victim produced it before the police.
The court observed that multiple statements of the victim were recorded from February 18, 2017, following the incident, and that she first raised allegations against Dileep only on June 3, 2017.
Even on that day, nothing was mentioned about filming of the ring as claimed by the prosecution, the court said.
The prosecution failed to explain why the victim did not disclose this fact at the earliest available opportunities.
It further noted that although the victim had viewed the sexual assault visuals twice, she did not mention any specific recording of the gold ring on those occasions, which remained unexplained.
The court also examined the approvers' statements.
One approver told the magistrate that Dileep had instructed Pulsar Suni to record the victim's wedding ring.
The court observed that no such wedding ring was available with her at that time.
During the trial, the approver changed his version, the court said.
The Special Public Prosecutor put a leading question to the approver on whether Dileep had instructed the recording of the ring, after which he deposed that the instruction was to record it to prove the victim's identity.
The court observed that the approver changed his account to corroborate the victim's evidence.
When the same question was put to another approver, he repeated the claim during the trial but admitted he had never stated this fact before the investigating officer.
The court noted that the second approver even went to the extent of claiming Dileep had instructed the execution of the crime as the victim's engagement was over.
This showed that the evidence of the second approver regarding the shooting of the ring was untrue, as her engagement had taken place after the crime.
The court further observed that the visuals themselves clearly revealed the victim's identity and that there was no need to capture images of the ring to establish identity.
In paragraph 887, the court examined the alleged motive behind the crime and noted that in the first charge sheet, the prosecution had claimed that accused persons 1 to 6 had kidnapped the victim with the common intention of capturing nude visuals to extort money by threatening to circulate them and there was no mention about Dileep's role in it.
The court also rejected the prosecution's claim that the accused had been planning the assault on Dileep's instructions since 2013, noting that the allegation was not supported by reliable evidence.
It similarly ruled out the claim that Suni attempted to sexually assault the victim in Goa in January 2017, stating that witness statements showed no such misconduct when he served as the driver of the vehicle used by the actress there.
The court also discussed various controversies that followed Dileep's arrest and the evidence relied upon by the prosecution, ultimately finding that the case had not been proved.
Pronouning its verdict on the sensational case on December 8, the court acquitted Dileep and three others.
Later, the court sentenced six accused, including the prime accused Suni, to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment.
The assault on the multilingual actress, after the accused allegedly forced their way into her car and held it under their control for two hours on February 17, 2017, had shocked Kerala.
Pulsar Suni sexually assaulted the actress and video recorded the act with the help of the other convicted persons in the moving car.
