2010 rioting: Court acquits Cong ex-MLA Khan, 6 more

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Wednesday acquitted former Indian National Congress MLA Asif Mohammad Khan and six other accused in a case of rioting and damage to public property at a police station in Jamia Nagar in 2010.
The court of additional chief judicial magistrate Taniya Bamniyal gave them the benefit of the doubt.
Apart from Khan, the court acquitted Wahab, Siraj, Aqeel Ahmad, Javed Nisar Khan, Mukaram Agha and Nawab Ahmad for the offences under sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting armed with a deadly weapon), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter a public servant from his duty), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of his duty), and 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) of IPC and Section 3 of Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984.
According to the prosecution, on March 15, 2010, an FIR was registered on the complaint of a police officer who claimed that there was a ruckus at the Jamia Nagar police station around 11.30 pm. Supporters of Khan allegedly raised slogans against Pravez Hashmi, then Rajya Sabha member, and pelted stones on the walls of the police station. While some cops sustained injuries in the incident, police station property also got damaged.
The court said that the prosecution could not prove specifically which accused persons amongst them broke the door of the SHO room as well as the potted plants at the premises of the police station.
"There is no gainsaying that if two reasonably probable and evenly balanced views of evidence are possible, one must necessarily concede to the existence of a reasonable doubt," it added.
The lacunae in the story of the prosecution render the version of the prosecution doubtful, leading to the irresistible conclusion that the burden of proving the guilt of the accused persons beyond reasonable doubt has not been discharged by the prosecution, the court noted.