New Delhi [India], March 24 : Delhi's Tis Hazari court has acquitted three accused persons of charges of attempt to murder case giving them the benefit of the doubt. This case pertains to the alleged firing of a person and thereby injuring him during the construction of a house in the Jama Masjid area.
While acquitting the accused person court noted that all main prosecution witnesses including the eye witness who had a gunshot injury turned hostile from their initial statement. An FIR was lodged in Police Station Jama Masjid in the year 2019.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Ekta Gauba Mann acquitted Rizwan, Naushad alias Pahalwan and Mohd Iqbal Saifi of all charges levelled against them.
The court said, " In view of the fact that the most crucial witness namely Ata-Ur-Rehman, eye witness cum only victim cum injured has turned fully hostile and not supported the prosecution case."
"This fact erodes the credibility of the entire prosecution case and throws doubt on the prosecution story. No public person has been made a witness to the alleged recovery of a weapon. This fact further throws doubt on the prosecution story," the judge said.
The eye-witnesses namely Mohd Zakir and Mohd Rafiq have also turned fully hostile and not supported the prosecution case, the court noted.
The court observed that even, the public witnesses namely Nadeem Khan and Danish have also turned fully hostile and not supported the prosecution case.
"Thus, the prosecution has miserably failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt," ASJ Mann said in the judgement passed on March 21.
On October 10, 2023, the court charged all the three accused for offences punishable under Section 307/506/34 IPC
and accused Mohd Iqbal Saifi was also charged under section 25 Arms Act to which they all pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.
It was the case of the prosecution, one injured Ata Ur Rehman stated that on February 21, 2018, he along with Mohd Rafiq and Mohd Zakir took the bricks on hand there at the behest of their employer to Gali Jagat Wali, Urdu Bazar where the house of Makkhi was being constructed.
He further stated that at around 8:00 am, he was taking out bricks from the hand there and handing them over to Rafiq and Zakir, who were taking the same inside the house.
Ata-Ur-Rehman further stated that at around 8:15 am, three boys came from the side of Kala Mahal and they all had pistols in their pockets, they took the said pistols in their hands and showed them to everyone and out of them, two accused boys came near him and threatened him that house of Makkhi would neither be constructed nor any construction material would be unloaded here and they threatened that let them first kill the servant of PW Makkhi.
It was alleged that one of the said accused boys with the intention to kill Ata- Ur-Rehman fired a shot from his pistol towards him. Ata-Ur Rehman further stated that he tried to save himself and as a result, one shot hit his left thigh and passed and got stuck in his other leg.