Delhi riots: 1,030 page police chargesheet unearths ‘conspiracy and pattern’ of violence
— By Divyansh Dev
February 2020 visit of POTUS Donal Trump got overshadowed by the Delhi Riots. However, the recent chargesheet filed by the Delhi Police puts light on a larger conspiracy that came with a nefarious design. Parallel occurring of these riots was not just coincidence, but the outcome of a plan that started in December 2019 itself.
Last year on December 13, strong mob of 2000 people gathered near JMI metro station with an objective to march towards the Parliament. They had sought no permission from the Delhi Police and when they faced the barricades – they resorted to stone pelting. Nearly 15 policemen got injured. On December 14, few women sat down to protest against CAA in Shaheen Bagh and engineered systematic encroachment through organised crowds. Next day, on December 15, Amanatullah Khan, AAP MLA was spotted leading the riots in Jamia Nagar. This same mob went unruly and burnt the DTC buses. The miscreants then entered JMI campus on the same night. The police then led the unpopular crackdown with an intention to flush out the miscreants from the university campus. In the following days, more buses were burnt in Delhi and the police became the subject of gruesome brutality of stone-pelters especially in Seelampur area of Delhi.
Come January, and suspended AAP Councillor Tahir Hussain debuts into the picture. The 1030-page chargesheet finds him at epicentre of Chandbagh riots in North East Delhi. Chandbagh, was the area where IB staffer Ankit Sharma got killed. On January 8, 2020 he met with Umar Khalid and Khalid Saifi. He asked them to “be prepared for something big/riots at the time of Trump’s visit”. He is also said to have funded the riots financially with Rs 1.30 crore. Just before the riots, he is said to have released his pistol from Khajuri Khas Police Station. Out of 100 cartridges on his license, 14 live cartridges went missing. Upon interrogation, he could not provide reason behind missing cartridges to Delhi Police. During the investigations, he has disclosed that he stabbed Ankit Sharma multiple times. He is also charged with leading, invoking and instigating rioters in Chand Bagh Area.
Later in February, just before arrival of POTUS – Jaffrabad took the centre stage as “F Group” intensified its foul play. Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita of the group have been named for causing riots near Jafrabad Metro Station. Connected with “India against hate group” and Umar Khalid, the WhatsApp messages retrieved by the police point towards systematic planning of riots in North East Delhi, especially around the arrival of POTUS.
Both are booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for inciting riots in north-east Delhi. The chargesheet mentions that both the women had mobilised local residents for protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act . Previously as well, Devangana Kalita has been taken into custody for rioting and instigating the mob to stone-pelt policemen around Daryaganj Police Station in December last year.
Recently, the Delhi High Court bailed Safoora Zargar on humanitarian grounds. However, sessions court hearing her bail-plea agreed that based on the material placed on record, she had “conspired to disruption to such an extent that it would cause disorderliness and disturbance of law and order at an unprecedented scale”.
Similarly, for Shahrukh Pathan, who had opened fire on head constable Deepak Dahiya has been booked under charges of rioting and relevant penal code provisions for pointing the gun at the constable. He is the same person, whose video of pointing a pistol at a policeman during the riots had gone viral on the Internet.
The pattern is clear, first a mob veiled as democratic protesters is orchestrated, thereafter they are made to turn violent by causing riots and damaging public property. When they face opposition from the police for warranting permission or peace; they play the victim card of police brutality against the exercise of democratic protests rights.
When the dots are connected in retrospective, words of Delhi Police follow through. In a recent statement it said, “their intent was to create communal strife, to malign the image of the country under the garb of democratically opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act. The conspirators caused disruption by dual scheme of spreading misinformation on CAA and roads blockade (chakka jam), which triggered a major communal riot”
Naturally, as a result of which, The New York Times during POTUS’ visit ran the headline “New Delhi streets turn into battlegrounds for Hindus and Muslims”. It must be understood that New Delhi was deliberately made a battleground by the select few who came with specific agenda. The propaganda machinery surrounding the CAA wanted to hijack the visit with their vested narrative that got eventually picked up by international media. This became counter-productive to Indian interests that could have been synced more robustly with the United States; especially after the great political equity harnessed from “Howdy Modi” event late last year.