New Delhi: A Delhi court has acquitted 12 men accused of abducting and murdering a man during the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, saying that the prosecution failed to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt due to major contradictions in eyewitness testimonies and weak corroborative evidence.

Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh was hearing the case against Lokesh Solanki, Pankaj Sharma, Sumit Chaudhary alias Badshah, Ankit Chaudhary alias Fauzi, Prince alias DJ Wala, Rishabh Chaudhary alias Tapas, Jatin Sharma alias Rohit, Vivek Panchal alias Nandu, Himanshu Thakur, Sahil alias Babu, Sandeep alias Mogli and Tinku Arora, who were accused of murdering Musharraf.

In an order dated April 21, the court said, “Prosecution has failed to prove its case against the accused beyond a reasonable doubt and the accused are entitled to benefit of doubt. All the accused are accordingly acquitted of the charges framed against them.”

All accused were arrested in connection with the case related to the death of Musharraf, whose body was recovered from a drain in Bhagirathi Vihar on February 27, 2020, amid widespread communal violence in the area.

The prosecution alleged that on the night of February 25, a mob of 150-200 people forcibly entered Musharraf’s residence, dragged him out, assaulted him and later threw his body into a drain.

Charges were framed under various provisions, including murder, rioting, unlawful assembly, kidnapping, destruction of evidence and promoting enmity against the accused persons.

The court said the prosecution’s case substantially rested on the testimonies of the deceased’s wife and daughter, who claimed to have witnessed the killing.

“There are serious departures regarding the subsequent events leading to the death of the deceased. Individually, these discrepancies might be treated as minor variations; however, their cumulative effect is that the testimonies are mutually destructive and unreliable on the most material aspect of the case,” the court said.

The court also found the deceased’s wife “wholly unnatural” and noted that despite claiming to have seen her husband being killed, she neither called a PCR nor informed relatives for nearly two days.

“It is evident that for two days neither did she call the PCR nor inform anyone that her husband had been killed. This is highly improbable that in such a scenario she would not disclose, even to her daughter, that Musharraf had been murdered,” the judge said.

On the call detail records relied upon by the prosecution, the judge said they only placed the accused broadly in their residential areas and could not establish involvement in the crime.

“Presence of an accused in or around his residential area, without more, does not establish his involvement in the crime. Consequently, no substantial weight can be attached to the CDR evidence for establishing guilt,” the court said.

Regarding WhatsApp chats recovered from accused Lokesh Solanki, the court said that though they showed intent to spread hatred, he had already been convicted for the same chats in another FIR and could not be punished again.

It then acquitted all the accused of all charges framed against them.