A Delhi court on Thursday sentenced Dinesh Yadav, the first person to be convicted in connection to the February 2020 riots in Delhi, to five years of imprisonment, NDTV reported. This is also the first sentencing in cases related to the violence.
The court will pass a detailed order later, reported Bar and Bench.
Last month, Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat had found Yadav guilty under sections 143 (member of an unlawful assembly), 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapon), 457 (house trespass), 392 (robbery), 436 (arson) of the Indian Penal Code.
The maximum punishment under these sections have a jail term of up to 10 years.
Clashes had broken out between supporters of the Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposing it between February 23 and February 26, 2020, in North East Delhi. At least 53 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the violence. Several cases related to the violence are being heard in Delhi courts.
Yadav was among a mob of about 200 people who had trespassed into the house of a woman, vandalised it, committed robbery and then set it ablaze on February 25, 2020, according to a complaint filed by the 73-year-old victim.
During hearing of the case, the prosecution had contended that Yadav was an “active member of the riotous mob” and that he was identified by the complainant in her supplementary statement. The police also presented two police witnesses and a public witness in the case.
“The fact that the accused also belongs to Hindu community and was present in the mob armed with an wooden rod which mob resorted to violence against the Muslims, indicates that he shared the common object of the unlawful assembly,” the court had said in December.
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