Delhi riots: Police files chargesheets against five people accused of murdering local residents

New Delhi: The Delhi police filed three chargesheets before a court on Tuesday against five persons in cases related to alleged murder of local residents during the communal violence in north east Delhi in February. The Crime Branch of Delhi police filed the chargesheets before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Purushottam Pathak in the case relating to large scale rioting in many parts of north east Delhi, including the Brijpuri main road on 25 February. All the accused — Ashok, Ajay, Shubham, Aarif and Jitender — are in judicial custody in the case. The chargesheets were filed in the murder cases of Zakir, Ashfaq Hussain and Mehtab respectively, who were allegedly brutally assaulted and murdered on the road by the rioters. The accused persons have been charge sheeted under sections 147 and 148 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly), 302 (murder), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. The offences entail a maximum punishment of death penalty. According to the charge sheet at about 4 pm on 25 February, the members of one particular community allegedly targeted the shops and houses of the another community which was fiercely resisted and this led to large scale rioting, stone pelting and arson from both the sides. Three members of the minority community were caught hold of by a mob on the road, who were brutally assaulted and it led to their death, the chargesheet stated. Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on 24 February after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.