The body of the deceased was found in Bhagirathi Vihar on February 27, 2020. (Express file photo)A Delhi court recently acquitted 12 men who were allegedly part of a mob accused of murdering a man during the riots which broke out in Northeast Delhi in 2020.“…while the witnesses are broadly consistent on the initial facts…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,” said Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Parveen Singh of Karkardooma court in the order dated April 21.ASJ Singh was hearing a 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 one Musharraf in February 2020.The court also noted that the deceased’s wife neither made a PCR call nor informed relatives for nearly two days despite claiming to have seen her husband getting killed. “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.“In these circumstances, the conduct of PW5 in remaining silent for nearly two days after allegedly witnessing the murder of her husband appears wholly unnatural. While it is true that there is no fixed standard of human reaction, and individuals may respond differently to trauma, her prolonged silence, particularly when opportunities to disclose the incident were not only readily available but the situation was, that she would have been probed about her husband, cannot be accepted as natural conduct,” he added.Must Read | Northeast Delhi riots larger conspiracy case: HC dismisses Delhi Police’s appeal against bail granted to Ishrat JahanAs per the Delhi Police, a mob of around 200 people forcibly entered Musharraf’s residence, dragged him out, assaulted him and later threw his body into a drain near Johripur Pulia on the night of February 25, 2020.The accused were allegedly part of a Whatsapp group named ‘Kattar Hindu Ekta’.Story continues below this ad“These chats (of the group) are clearly having an intent of spreading hatred and animosity between two communities and the effect of this successful intent is also visible from these chats. However, it has been candidly admitted by Learned SPP that for the same chats, accused Lokesh has already been convicted and sentenced for offence u/s 153A and 505 IPC in FIR No.149/20 of PS Gokal puri. Therefore, in my considered opinion, in view of Article 20 of the Constitution of India, the accused cannot be convicted for the same offence again,” the Judge said.The body of the deceased was found in Bhagirathi Vihar on February 27, 2020. © The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:Northeast Delhi riots