Delhi riots: Police file voluminous charge sheet against 15 accused

Demonstrators shout slogans and hold placards during a protest against the CAA, NRC at Jaffrabad in New Delhi on February 23. File pic/AFP

Relying on the technical evidence and 747 witnesses, Delhi Police's Special Cell on Wednesday filed a voluminous charge sheet against 15 accused under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Indian Penal Code and Arms Act in connection with a case related to widespread violence in Delhi in February.

The charge sheet was filed at Delhi's Karkardooma court before Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat. It names Tahir Hussain, Devangana Kalita, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Natasha Narwal, Mohammed Pervez Ahmad, Mohammed Ilyas, Saifi Khalid, Ishrat Jahan, Meeran Haidar, Safoora Zargar, Shahdab Ahamd, Talseem Ahmad, Salim Malik, Mohammed Salim Khan and Athar Khan.

Tahir Hussain has been named as a main accused. The charge sheet, however, does not name Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam. Their names will be added in the supplementary charge sheet later. It has been filed in the FIR 59/2020, under which the special cell is probing the 'conspiracy' angle in the communal riots.

In the charge sheet, the police has relied on the call data records and WhatsApp chats of the accused, along with other technical evidence and 747 witnesses.

The police have mentioned the WhatsApp chats of February 24 as evidence in the charge sheet. "That was the time when riots were happening. At that point, the key conspirators were guiding their foot soldiers about violence in the area. They were directly in touch with foot soldiers," the police said.

The police added that the conspirators used a WhatsApp group, which is now closed, for violence in Seelampur and Jafrabad area. Twenty-five WhatsApp groups were especially created for each site. The impression was given that they were an anti-CAA protest group, but through these cites conspirators were being guided, Delhi Police added.

Communal violence broke out in North-East Delhi on February 24 after clashes between the citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.

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