Prima Facie evidence to show Umar Khalid and Tahir Hussain conspired on Delhi riots, says Court

There was enough evidence to prima facie show that former JNU student Umar Khalid and ex- AAP councillor Tahir Hussain and others conspired on East-Delhi riots last year, observed a court Tuesday while taking cognisance of the supplementary charge sheet filed in the case. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Dinesh Kumar said there was sufficient material on record to proceed against Khalid in the case related to the communal violence in Khajuri Khas area in February last year.

The court pointed at a witness statement and said that this was enough to show that Khalid was in contact with Hussain, who is accused of instigating a violent mob from his home to attack people and loot their belongings. “Due to the instigation by the accused persons, a mob had gathered which had robbed persons and burnt down the properties including houses and shops. They had also destroyed the public property,” it said in its order.

The court has relied upon the statement of a witness named Rahul Kasana and a perusal of his statement under section 161 (examination by police) CrPC would show that he has stated that he was working as a driver of Hussain at the relevant time. The court said as per his statement, Kasana had seen accused Hussain allegedly distributing money to the persons who were participating in the demonstration against the Citizenship Amendment Act. It said the statement alleged that on January 8, 2020, he had taken Hussain to Shaheen Bagh where the latter had entered in an office after deboarding the car and after some time he had seen Umar Khalid along with Khalid Saifi allegedly entering inside the office.

The court said: “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 had funded the communal riots and instigated the mob from his house to rob the persons and to burn down the properties.”

The police had filed the supplementary charge sheet against Khalid in the case on December 26 last year. The main charge sheet was filed against 15 persons, including Hussain, in June last year. Khalid was arrested in the case in October 2020 and was in judicial custody. He was arrested in September last year in a separate case related to the conspiracy in the riots and booked under the stringent anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.