Two years on, chargesheet in Delhi riots case says ‘no evidence’ against BJP leader

Petitioner, who is an eyewitness, has moved a protest application

Nearly two years after Nisar Ahmed, a Delhi riots victim, filed a complaint regarding vandalism and ransacking of his house and shop in north-east Delhi’s Bhagirathi Vihar, Delhi Police has said that it has found “no sufficient evidence” against BJP leader Kanhaiya Lal, one of the accused in the case. Mr. Ahmed had also alleged that burqa-clad women were being killed and thrown into the Bhagirathi drain.

In a chargesheet filed in Mr. Ahmed’s case before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Arun Kumar Garg, police have kept Mr. Lal, a BJP councillor from east Delhi’s Johripur ward, in column 12. Column 12 in a chargesheet means that there is not enough evidence to make a person an accused in a case.

Another accused, Mukesh Masterji, has also been kept in column 12. “The name of Kanhaiya Lal and Mukesh Masterji have been kept in column no. 12 of the chargesheet, as no sufficient evidence has come on cases filed against them. The hon’ble court may summon them for trial, if it thinks fit,” the chargesheet stated.