NEW DELHI: Days after a court questioned the Delhi Police over sustainability of a charge sheet filed in a 2020 riots case, the prosecutor who was handling the matter was ‘replaced’.
Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav asked the police how a charge sheet in the case was sustainable in law as the FIR was registered on a complaint in which three of the co-accused had been discharged earlier.
The question of law, essentially, becomes of how the proceedings against the accused in the second case can continue when they have been discharged for the same sections of the crime in the same jurisdiction, said Yadav.
The court had asked Special Public Prosecutor D K Bhatia whether this would amount to ‘double jeopardy’, a legal principle that a person cannot be tried for the same crime twice in the same jurisdiction.
On September 9, the court was informed that Bhatia has been replaced by prosecutor Madhukar Pandey.
“It is stated that D K Bhatia, who was earlier handling this case has been replaced by Madhukar Pandey who is to be briefed in this matter,” the court noted.
The prosecution sought two months to argue the matter but the judge dismissed the request.
The court was conducting proceedings in the FIR 117/2020 filed on a complaint of one Zeeshan against Mohd Shadab, Rashid Saifi, Shah Alam and others co-accused.
Zeeshan’s same complaint was also included in the FIR 109/2020 in which Shadab, Saifi, and Alam were discharged on September 2.
The court said, “On September 2, this court had discharged the accused persons in FIR No.109/2020. In the case, one of the complaints tagged along with the main complaint of Zeeshan’s. The matter was
investigated and charge sheet in the matter was filed.”
Bail to two accused in riot case
The Delhi High Court granted bail to two men, accused of firing bullets during the north-east Delhi riots last year, saying the injury received by the victim was from a gunshot but by a stone.
The court said it deemed it fit to grant regular bail to the two accused on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 50,000 each with two surety bonds of the like amount.
“Considering the fact that the injury received to Azim was not by a gunshot but by a stone, this court deems it fit to grant regular bail to the petitioners,” said Justice Mukta Gupta.
The court directed the two accused not to leave the country without prior permission of the court concerned.