Delhi riots: Court takes cognisance of 2 chargesheets against Tahir Hussain, 2 against school owner

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Purushottam Pathak took cognisance of the chargesheet against Faisal Farooq, the owner of Rajdhani School in Shiv Vihar locality, and 17 others for their alleged involvement in burning and damaging the property adjacent to DRP Convent School during the riots. The court said there was sufficient material on record to take cognisance of the offences of attempt to murder (307), criminal conspiracy (120-B), disappearance of evidence (201), rioting (147, 148), unlawful assembly (149), dacoity (395), mischief by fire (436) and common intention (34).

A Delhi court on Friday took cognisance of four chargesheets, two against the owner of a private school and two against former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain, in cases related to the communal violence in north east Delhi in February. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Purushottam Pathak took cognisance of the chargesheet against Faisal Farooq, the owner of Rajdhani School in Shiv Vihar locality, and 17 others for their alleged involvement in burning and damaging the property adjacent to DRP Convent School during the riots.

The court said there was sufficient material on record to take cognisance of the offences of attempt to murder (307), criminal conspiracy (120-B), disappearance of evidence (201), rioting (147, 148), unlawful assembly (149), dacoity (395), mischief by fire (436) and common intention (34). The court further took cognisance of two chargesheets -- one against Hussain and nine others and another against Hussain and five others -- in cases related to rioting in Khajuri Khas area.

It said there was sufficient material to take cognisance of the offences of abetment (109), rioting, unlawful assembly, mischief, house trespassing (454), dacoity, criminal conspiracy and common intention against Hussain and others. One of the chargesheets was filed against Hussain, Riyasat Ali, Gulfam, Shah Alam, Rashid Saifi, Arshad Qayyum, Liyakat Ali, Mohammad Shadab, Mohammad Adib and Irshad Ahmed. The second chargesheet was filed against Hussain, Anas, Firoz, Javed, Gulfam and Shoaib Alam.

The court, however, did not take cognisance of the offences under sections 505 (statements conducive to public mischief), 153 A (promoting enmity between groups based on religion, caste, language etc) as the sanction required for proceeding against these has not been obtained by the police yet. The investigating officer of the Delhi police informed the court that a letter has been sent to the competent authority, but it is not clear how much time it would take for obtaining the sanction.

It also took cognisance of the chargesheet filed against Farooq and four others -- Parvez, Ashraf Ali, Sonu Saifi and Anis Qureshi -- for attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy, rioting, unlawful assembly and damage to public property duirng the riots in Dayalpur area. Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.