Delhi court acquits several Sikh leaders in 2012 case of rioting, unlawful assembly

Delhi's Rouse Avenue court on Tuesday acquitted several Sikh leaders in a case of rioting and unlawful assembly at Gurudwara Rakab Ganj Sahib in 2012 and causing hurt to others during a meeting of Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC).

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sachin Gupta on Tuesday in the order stated that it is clear that the prosecution has failed to establish the charges under sections 147, 148, 323, 325 and 427 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) read with Section 149 IPC against the accused persons, beyond reasonable doubts and accordingly, accused persons namely Manjeet Singh GK, Kuldeep Singh Bhogal, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Paramjeet Singh Rana and Chaman Singh are acquitted for the said offences.

Further, the court said, "It is the fundamental principle of criminal jurisprudence that an accused is presumed to be innocent and therefore, the burden lies on the prosecution to prove the guilt of the accused beyond a reasonable doubt. The general burden of establishing the guilt of accused is always on the prosecution and it never shifts."

"It is settled proposition that the prosecution has to prove the guilt of accused beyond all reasonable doubt and that too by leading independent, reliable and unimpeachable evidence. There is no controversy to the proposition that the accused is entitled to the benefit of every doubt occurring in the prosecution case," the court added.

According to the prosecution, the accused were charged under section 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with a deadly weapon), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) and 427 (Mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees or upwards), read with section 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) of IPC.

According to the allegations made in FIR registered on November 15, 2012, at Gurudwara Rakab Ganj Sahib, a meeting of DSGMC presided over by S Paramjeet Singh Sarna (then President) was convened and all the accused persons being part of an unlawful assembly along with other miscreants and security guards with their common object to take or obtain possession of records of DSGMC and in the event of failing to take possession of records, to burn the records, used force and violence in the prosecution of the said common object of the unlawful assembly and also used deadly weapon like swords which are likely to cause death as a weapon of offence, for the purpose of rioting.

( With inputs from ANI )