2020 Delhi riots: Court says 'unsafe' to rely on tainted witness testimony

In a recent court ruling, 13 individuals accused in the 2020 northeast Delhi riots case have been acquitted. The Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh expressed concern over the reliability of the prosecution's key witness testimony, citing doubts about its credibility. The court deemed the CCTV footage, which served as crucial identification evidence, insufficient to establish the identities of the accused.

With the witness suddenly claiming to be an eyewitness, the court deemed it unsafe to rely on his testimony. Raman Chauhan, the alleged victim of the attack, could not identify any of the rioters involved. The FIR was filed against 13 accused individuals for various charges, including rioting, rioting with deadly weapons, attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy, and disobedience of an order by a public servant.

The prosecution witness initially stated he did not witness the incident but later appeared as an eyewitness and identified two accused from poor-quality CCTV footage. The court found the black-and-white, dark, and grainy footage, along with the facial identification's poor pixel resolution, rendered the witness testimony unreliable.

Additionally, the court noted that CCTV footage alone could not prove criminal conspiracy due to a lack of evidence regarding the conspiracy's inception, location, or participants. The prosecution failed to meet the mandatory requirements for proclamation proceedings against several accused under Section 174A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Consequently, all the accused individuals are acquitted of all charges brought against them.