The eight persons booked on murder charge for Constable Subhash Tomar’s death during anti-rape protests in New Delhi were on Tuesday given a clean chit by Delhi police which informed the High Court that “no evidence” was found against them.
The police, however, said it has found evidence of their involvement in destruction of public properties during the protests against the December 16 gang rape of a 23-year-old paramedical student who later died in a Singapore hospital.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Delhi Police, informed Justice G.P. Mittal that the eight youths were not involved in the constable’s death.
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Mr. Luthra said that “no evidence” was found during investigations that could lead to the involvement of the eight persons to constable’s death, but their role was found in destruction of public properties during the anti-rape protests near India Gate.
“We have done the analysis... We have electronic records (their phone locations records). Police have found evidence regarding other offences including damage of public properties but found no evidence of their involvement in Tomar’s death,” the ASG said while referring to the case diary.
The eight youths — Kailash and Amit Joshi, Shantanu Kumar, Nafees, Shankar Bisht, Nand Kumar, Abhishek and Chaman Kumar — were booked under section 302 of the IPC after Constable Tomar had died on December 25, 2012 at RML hospital.
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Mr. Shantanu Kumar is a member of Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Admi Party.
Charges of rioting and causing damage to public property were also invoked against them by the cops.
The submission by Delhi Police today came during the hearing of a plea filed by the eight youths through their advocate Somnath Bharti for quashing of the charges against them in Tomar’s death case.
The court fixed March 20, for final arguments in the case.
The eight accused were granted bail by the trial court on December 24.
Apart from the plea of the eight youths for quashing of the FIR against them, the court is also hearing a separate plea of Gaurav Kumar Bansal, an advocate, seeking a CBI probe into the constable’s death.
Mr. Bansal has moved the court seeking a CBI probe into the case alleging contradictions in the statements of various officials including Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar, eye witnesses and the medical expert on the reasons for Tomar’s death.
The youths had sought quashing of the FIR claiming they have been falsely implicated “without an iota of evidence”.
Earlier, taking note of their plea, the court had asked the police to file a status report of its probe into the circumstances leading to death of Tomar, who was allegedly assaulted on December 23, by the eight during the protests.
The counsel for the eight had said that video footage of DMRC amply suggests that the two of the accused, Kailash Joshi and his brother Amit, were travelling in a metro at the time of the incident and their alleged false implication in the case raises a serious issue.
Constable Tomar, who died on December 25 at RML hospital, was posted at Karawal Nagar police station in New Delhi and was called to help police in maintaining law and order at India Gate during the anti-rape protests on December 23.