Reasonable ground to prima facie show Khalid and Hussain conspired: Delhi court

The court said a witness statement was sufficient to show that during the relevant time, Khalid was allegedly in contact with Hussain, accused as the main conspirator who allegedly funded the riots and instigated the mob from his house to rob people and burn down properties. It noted that the prosecution has alleged in the chargesheet that Khalid was an active participant in the criminal conspiracy to instigate riots in various parts of Delhi.

Due to instigation by the accused persons, a mob had gathered which robbed persons and burnt down properties including houses and shops, the court noted, adding that they had also destroyed public property.

It said that as per the witness statement, he had seen accused Hussain allegedly distribute money to the persons who were participating in the demonstration against the Citizenship Amendment Act.

The court said the statement alleged that on January 8, 2020, he had taken Hussain to Shaheen Bagh where the latter entered an office, and after sometime he had seen Umar Khalid along with Khalid Saifi allegedly entering the office.

“After about 1-1.5 hours, accused Tahir Hussain had come out of the office. The statement of this witness is sufficient to show that during the relevant time, accused Umar Khalid was in contact with accused Tahir Hussain against whom there is sufficient material on record to prima facie show that he was the main conspirator who funded the communal riots and instigated the mob from his house to rob people and to burn down properties,” the order read.

“Thus, there is reasonable ground to prima facie show that accused Umar Khalid, accused Tahir Hussain and other accused persons had conspired together to commit offences as mentioned in the chargesheet. Hence, there is sufficient material on record to proceed against accused Umar Khalid,” the court said.