Delhi Police files chargesheets in connection with February violence

With life limping back to normalcy on the work front amid coronavirus, Crime Branch of Delhi Police has started filing chargesheets in various cases connected with the violence that took place in February in the national capital.

New Delhi: The Crime Branch of Delhi Police has been filing chargesheets one after the other for the past two days in connection with the violence in the national capital's northeast area in February, which had left at least 53 people dead and 200 injured.

After filing chargesheets against the owner of Rajdhani school (Shiv Vihar) Faisal Farooque, wherein it accused him of having visited "Deoband" and having links with "Hazrat Nizamuddin Markaz", and another one in connection with the murder of IB officer Ankit Sharma during the riots, it has also filed a chagresheet in the murder case of two brothers - Hashim Ali and Aamir Ali - who were killed on the evening of February 25 and their bodies were recovered two days later from a near by drain.

In Faisal Farooque case, the police said: "His (Faisal's) call detail analysis and links with prominent members of Popular Front of India, Pinjratod group, Jamia Coordination Committee, Hazrat Nizamuddin Markaz and some other fundamental muslim clerics including Deoband also show the depth of the conspiracy."

The police in its chargesheet have mentioned that Farooque visited Deoband on February 23, just one day before the riots began in the Shiv Vihar and its neighboring areas too.

The case relates with riots that broke out on February 24 outside Shiv Vihar's Rajdhani School where another school named DRP Convent and an adjacent sweet shop was burnt and a man trapped inside the shop died. At least 18 people including Farooque were arrested by the police in this regard.

Similarly, in the chargesheet concerning the murder of IB officer Ankit Sharma, the police said he was murdered on February 25 outside AAP leader Tahir Hussain's house in Khajuri Khas area and his body was thrown in a nearby drain by the rioters.

"A witness standing on a terrace had captured a video on his mobile phone, in which a group of persons are seen dumping the body in the drain," the police said.

The matter will now be taken up for consideration on June 16.

"Ten persons, including Tahir Hussain, were arrested in this case. Investigation has revealed that there was a deep rooted conspiracy behind the riot and murder of Ankit Sharma, who was a familiar face in the area. He was specifically targeted by a mob led by Tahir Hussain," the police added.

It has been found that Tahir Hussain is the main person who had been instigating the mob, both on February 24 and 25, in the Chand Bagh area.

Chargesheets have been also filed by the Crime Branch against JNU student Umar Khalid.