Northeast Delhi riots: Court acquits 12 accused of murder

Those acquitted are Lokesh Kumar Solanki, Pankaj Sharma, Ankit Chaudhary, Prince, Jatin Sharma, Himanshu Thakur, Vivek Panchal, Rishabh Chaudhary, Sumit Chaudhary, Tinku Arora, Sandeep and Sahil.

The Special Public Prosecutor had relied on WhatsApp chats from a group in which the accused persons were said to have made “extrajudicial confessions”.

Referring to these chats, ASJ Pramachala noted: “Such posts/messages may be put in the group solely with the intention of becoming hero in the estimation of other members of the group and it could be a boast also, without truth.”

“The argument of Ld. Prosecutor (is) that the chats show (the accused) Lokesh and others… who were members of that group, were involved in the riots. However, I find that this plea is just a general presumption without support of substantive evidence,” he said. The FIR had alleged that the accused persons were involved in the killing of nine persons. Of the nine, two were Hashim Ali and his brother Aamir Khan.

Witnesses examined by the prosecution had alleged that the accused persons were carrying stones, sticks, swords and iron rods and were shouting slogans.

The police filed multiple chargesheets naming a WhatsApp group. Lokesh was the first to be arrested in the case, and during his questioning, he named the other accused who were part of the group.