Saharanpur court orders release of 8 accused of violence in the absence of proof

They were booked for attempt to murder but police failed to submit any proof of their presence near the violence site

The court of Saharanpur’s chief judicial magistrate ordered the release of eight, among the 62 arrested in connection with the violence that took place in the city on June 10. The court order, whose copy is with The Hindu, reads that the inquiry of the Investigation Officer (IO) against the eight accused, who were released by the court, was faulty and they were produced in the court without any proper reasons or evidence.

Mr. Babar Waseem, the lawyer representing the case told The Hindu that the judge, last Saturday, had ordered the release of eight of the people, among which four are seen in the video of the police thrashing that went viral on social media.

“Can you imagine that police thrashed these people so badly even when they had no proof against them? The cops have not listened to any of them even when they kept pleading not guilty and not having any role in the violence,” said Mr. Waseem.

The lawyer further added that the CJM, in his verbal observations, maintained that the police had no right to thrash the men in lockup and the act was truly dastardly.

To recall, violence broke out in Sahranpur on June 10 as hundreds of people gathered outside the city’s main mosque after Friday prayers to protest against the remarks made against Prophet Mohammad by two former spokespersons of the BJP. As the protest turned violent, police lodged three different FIRs in the matter and named hundreds of residents, who they claimed were identified on the basis of CCTV footages.

Soon after the violence, a video of police brutality went viral that was first tweeted by MLA from Deoria, Shalabh Mani Tripathi. In the video, seven to eight men were seen being mercilessly thrashed by police inside a room. Tripathi wrote on his Twitter that the thrashing was a ‘return gift’ to the rioters.

“They claimed to have arrested my brother on the basis of CCTV footage but later they told the court that there was no proof against them. Is this is a joke going on?” asked Mohd Arif, brother of Mohd Asif, who was released on Sunday after spending 23 days in jail for the crime he had never committed.