A Delhi court on Wednesday halted the proceedings against a man who was turned into an accused by the Delhi Police days after he filed a complaint with the police alleging loot, arson, and damage to his house during the violence and riots that broke out in the national capital in February last year.
Hashim Ali had filed a complaint regarding the burning down of his house by a mob during the riots. However, later the same was clubbed with another FIR where he has been named as an accused.
The proceedings against Ali before a Magistrate Court were stayed by Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav till the next date of hearing i.e. April 29.
ASJ Yadav passed the said orders while hearing the Criminal Revision Petitions filed by Hashim Ali and Abu Bakar challenging the magistrate court order dated February 24.
The Magistrate Court had in its February 24 order had taken cognizance of offences under Section 147, 148, 149, 427, 436 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code against the petitioners.
During the hearing, Advocate M R Shamshad, appearing for Ali, argued that the interest of justice will be jeopardized if the interim stay is not granted, as the magistrate court would now proceed to commit the case to the Sessions Court.
Shamshad further argued that his clients want to take recourse to the remedies available to them in accordance with law before the magistrate court, but they may not be left high and dry by committal of the case.
It was also argued that both the petitioners were arrested in the matter despite they being complainant(s) and their complaints having been wrongly tagged with the complaint of Naresh Jain, particularly in the teeth of the fact that the son of complainant Naresh Jain was a named accused in the complaint made by the son of petitioner No. 1 with regard to arson and looting of his house.
However, the prosecution led by Special Public Prosecutor Nitin Rai Sharma submitted that the persons named in the complaint filed by the son of Hashim Ali are being interrogated and he wishes to produce original case diaries in the matter in this regard.
Following these arguments, the court stayed the proceedings till the next date and also ordered the Investigating Officer and SHO, Karawal Nagar to be present in the Court with original case diaries.
Last week, the same court had granted interim protection from arrest to Hashim’s son Rashid Ali. He had knocked on the doors of the court fearing his arrest in a case relating to the riots that broke out in the national capital’s North East District last year.
“It is evident that the police did not investigate the complaint of the applicant and now wants to arrest him in the matter,” ASJ Rawat had noted while granting relief to applicant Rashid till April 24.
Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 last year after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiraled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.