Delhi Riots: From Confessional Statements to Evidence and the Chargesheet, Dibar Negi’s Case is Full of Contradictions

New Delhi: The chargesheet filed by the Delhi Police in the brutal murder of Dilbar Negi during the communal violence in North-East Delhi in February this year is not without contradictions. The chargesheet in his case was recently filed before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at Karkardooma court.

Negi was “burnt alive” when a “Muslim mob” targeted shops and properties of Hindus near the Brijpuri-Shiv Vihar-Mustafabad crossing on February 24.

A resident of Pauri Garhwal region in Uttarakhand, 20-year-old Negi used to work at a sweet shop called Anil Sweets, located at the Brijpuri-Shiv Vihar-Mustafabad crossing. His charred and mutilated body was found from the second floor of the shop’s godown at Brijpuri, two days after the riots broke out.

Sequence of Events

Based on the statements of Anil Pal (the owner of Anil Sweets), Shyam Singh and Mahesh (two other employees of the shop) recorded under Section 161 of the CrPC, the investigators have given a timeline of the incident, which is as follows:

February 24, 2 p.m.: Negi goes to the godown near the sweet shop at A29 Chaman Park to take rest after lunch. He used to live in the same godown after he started working at the sweet shop six months before the communal violence.

February 24, 2:30 p.m. - 3 p.m.: A mob of around 250-300 “Muslim men” from the Mustafabad side starts gathering with weapons such as lathis, empty bottles and the like. Sensing trouble, the owner of the shop brings down the shutters and hides inside with his workers for an hour.

February 24, 4:00 p.m. - 4.30 p.m.: Anil and his employees escape and go to the terrace of a dairy shop, situated in the lane opposite the godown and owned by Anil’s brother, who was also hiding in the shop. From the terrace, Anil’s nephew Ankit captures videos and photos of a mob atop the sweet shop godown and Rajdhani Public School.

“We saw the mob was setting fire to selected Hindu houses that were adjacent to the sweet shop godown and the smoke had reached the building where Negi was stuck,” Shyam Singh told the police.

February 24, 6:40 p.m. - 6:45 p.m.: Anil says he saw a mob entering his godown with stones and petrol bombs. He could recognise one Shahnawaz aka Shanu (a local beedi shop owner) in the mob.

February 24, 7:00 p.m. - 7.30 p.m.: Anil, his family members and the workers leave the spot for their respective homes. When Anil enquired about Negi’s whereabouts, he was told that Negi was stuck in the godown since afternoon and that there has been no information about him.

February 24, 8:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.: Mahesh speaks to Dilbar Negi twice over phone. Negi informs him that he is hiding in the godown and is very scared.

February 24, 9:30 p.m.: Negi’s phone was switched off when Shyam Singh dialed his number to enquire about him.

February 25: There was still violence in the area and therefore, no one managed to muster enough courage to go to the godown.

February 26: Negi’s charred body is found from the second floor of the godown.

February 28: Negi’s brother Devender Singh, along with Anil Pal and Shyam Singh, go to the GTB Hospital mortuary with policemen to identify the body.

Also read: Delhi Violence: Near-Identical Statements by 3 Witnesses in Head Constable’s Murder Case

The Accused and the Evidence

Twelve young men have so far been accused of Negi’s murder and of torching the sweet shop. They are Md. Shahnawaz aka Shanu (27), Md. Faisal (20), Azad (25), Ashraf Ali (29), Rashid alias Monu (20), Shahrukh (24), Md. Shoaib aka Chutwa (22), Parvez (34), Rashid aka Raja (22), Md. Tahir (38), Salman (20) and Sonu Saifi (30).

According to the chargesheet, Shahnawaz is the prime accused as he allegedly led the mob. The accused have been charged with murder, criminal conspiracy, rioting and promoting enmity between groups. As of now, they are in judicial custody.

While chargesheeting them, the investigators cited locations of the accused cell phones during the violence, eye witnesses’ statements and CCTV footage as primary evidence.

Like the chronology mentioned in each of the chargesheets filed by the Delhi Police in February’s Delhi violence cases, the investigators in this chargesheet also has given a chronology. The motive behind the violence, allege the police, was to show the “prowess of Muslims over Hindus” and it was the result of spreading “misinformation on CAA (Citizenship (Amendment) Act)”.

File Photo.

As in the rest of the chargesheets, the investigators in this particular chargesheet have linked the violence to anti-CAA protests across the city and the road blockade at Jaffrabad, terming it a part of a “pre-planned conspiracy”.

Glaring Loopholes …Copy Paste Statements

An analysis of the statements of the accused revealed that they are copies of each other — near identical. Only three of the 12 accused have given different statements. These are related to the riots in Seelampur.

In their confessional statements, as per the chargesheet, Md Faisal (20), Ashraf Ali (29), Rashid aka Monu (20) and Azad (24) have all been quoted as saying the same thing ad verbatim.

Also read: Delhi Riots: Police Spin Conspiracy Theory, Accuse Anti-CAA Protesters of Planning ‘Blast’ Ahead of Trump’s Visit

“There were protests against CAA and NRC in the past few days. My friends told me those who don’t have evidence (to prove citizenship) will be evicted from the country. Based on this, riots had begun in Seelampur on February 24. It slowly spread across Jamna Par. A lot of people began assembling at Shiv Vihar Tiraha at around 2-3 pm and started pelting stones at Hindu houses. Hindus also started pelting stones at us. It continued for a long time.”

“….Many people had gathered at Mustafabad. They said Muslims will be thrown out of the country and today we have to show them the strength of Muslims. I also got carried away with what the entire crowd was saying….The crowd gathered at Shiv Vihar, where Hindu pelted stones at us, we threw stones at them. From our side, the crowd was raising slogans such as kill them, we will not leave the kaafirs (non-believers) today. I got carried away and started pelting stones. I continued to pelt stones for a long time.”

“…After this, the crowd started climbing onto the godown of Anil Sweet shop and Rajdhani School and indulged in stone pelting. I returned to my house in the night and stayed there. I committed a mistake, please forgive me.”

Similarly, the following statements with regard to the violence in Jaffrabad have been repeated word by word by Shahrukh (24) and Mohammed Shoaib (22).

“There were protests against CAA and NRC in the past few days. My friends told me those who don’t have evidence (to prove citizenship) will be evicted from the country. Based on this, riots had begun in Jaffrabad on February 24. It slowly spread across Jamna Par. A lot of people began assembling at Shiv Vihar Tiraha at around 2-3 pm and started pelting stones at Hindu houses. Hindus also started pelting stones at us. It continued for a long time.”

“…Many people began assembling Shiv Vihar Tiraha at around 3 pm and started pelting stones at Hindu houses.”

“…Many people gathered at Mustafabad and started saying Muslims will be evicted from the country. And today, we have to show them the strength of Muslims. I also started raising slogan and others who were with me also started sloganeering against the Hindus. After this, the entire crowd started chanting slogans to set fire and throw out the kaafirs and Naare Takbir, Allah Hu Akbar and started throwing marbles and stones using a slingshot at Hindu houses.”

The trend continues with minor changes in the statements of the remaining three — Rashid (22), Parvez (34) and Tahir (38).

“There were protests against CAA and NRC in the past few days. My friends told me those who don’t have evidence (to prove citizenship) will be evicted from the country. Based on this, riots had begun in Jaffrabad on February 24. It slowly spread across Jamna Par….”

“…Many people began assembling at Shiv Vihar Tiraha and started pelting stones at Hindu houses.”

“…Many people gathered at Mustafabad and started saying Muslims will be evicted from the country. And today, we have to show them the strength of Muslims. I also started raising slogan and others who were with me also started sloganeering against the Hindus. After this, the entire crowd started chanting slogans to set fire and throw out the kaafirs and Naare Takbir, Allah Hu Akbar and started throwing marbles and stones using a slingshot at Hindu houses.”

Also read: Police’s Charge-sheet Gives Chronology of Delhi Riots, Omits Kapil Mishra’s Crucial ‘Hate Speech’

The confessional statements of Ashraf Ali and Azad are different in terms of the weapons used. While Ashraf Ali said he had a “wooden bat” in his hand, Monu said he had an “iron rod”. Faizal claimed he was holding a “stick”. Rashid, Parvez, Tahir, Shahrukh and Shoeb said they had “sticks” stacked in their homes.

There appears to be a background for such scripted statements. A city court, as reported by Hindustan Times, had on June 20 granted bail to Rajdhani Public School Principal Faisal Farooq — who was arrested for allegedly hatching a conspiracy to cause and aggravate riots in and around his school — because of the inconsistency in one of the witness’s statement who did not tell the magistrate what he had told the police.

The court had termed the deficiency in the statement of the witness as “cover up” and rejected the IO’s (Investigating Officer) application to get an additional fact added to the statement. Producing a supplementary statement of the witness, the IO had claimed that the man got scared before the magistrate, which is why he could not state the correct facts. However, the court did not listen to him.

…Other Unconnected Dots

The police have claimed in the chargesheet that they have identified Salman, Md. Tasir, Rashid alias Raja, Md. Shoaib alias Chhutwa, Shahrukh, Md. Faisal and Azad in the CCTV recordings. However, the last available footage, which investigators have been able to retrieve so far, is till 4:35 p.m. on February 24. This, according to the timeline given by the investigators in the chargesheet, was not the time when Negi was murdered. According to Negi’s call details record, the deceased spoke to his colleague Mahesh for a third time, at 9:07 p.m. on the same day, suggests the timeline.

Citing the phone locations of the accused, the police allege that they were present in the area at the time of violence but it is not clear whether they were present there when the murder took place.

In his statement to the police, Anil Pal has said that he left the area between 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. How can he be made an eyewitness to Negi’s murder, which possibly took place after 9:07 p.m.?

Despite the fact that Shiv Vihar was the worst-affected area with a significant loss of lives and property, there is only a passing mention of the simultaneous presence of the Hindu mob at the time of violence, while how Muslim mob gathered and launched attacks using petrol and catapult from terrace of Rajdhani Public School (the tallest building in the area) has been described in detail.