New Delh, Sept. 24 -- A Delhi court on Thursday sentenced five men to two years' rigorous imprisonment for rioting and attacking police personnel during violence at a Bhajanpura petrol pump in the 2020 northeast Delhi riots.
Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh sentenced Arif, Mohd Khalid, Abdul Sattar, Tanveer Ali and Hunain after convicting them of rioting, assaulting or obstructing public servants and using criminal force against police personnel.
The court awarded two years' rigorous imprisonment to each convict under IPC Section 152, read with Section 149, for assaulting or obstructing public servants engaged in suppressing a riot. They were also sentenced to 1.5 years for rioting and assault or use of criminal force against public servants, and two months for obstructing a public servant. All sentences will run concurrently.
The court said the unlawful mob and the assault and obstruction of policemen trying to suppress the riot were aggravating circumstances.
It said the case did not warrant a "very lenient view", but maximum punishment was also not justified.
The court considered the convicts' socioeconomic conditions, first-offender status, their being sole breadwinners and the absence of subsequent criminal activity as mitigating circumstances.
The convicts were granted the benefit of time already spent in custody under Section 428 CrPC/Section 468 BNSS. The court had convicted them on September 9.
Their release will depend on the period already undergone and whether they are required in any other case.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.