NE Delhi violence: There was incitement, preparation for violence, argues prosecution opposing Umar Khalid bail plea

New Delhi [India], February 3 : There was incitement to violence, preparations were made, well-planned attacks were carried out on police officials and people were brought to protest sites for this, argued special public prosecutor while opposing bail plea of Umar Khalid on Wednesday in connection with North East Delhi violence case.
"There was masking by deleting the data from phones, blame game and creation of a new narrative to show that the riots did not happen due to the acts of the accused person," the prosecution argued.
Arguing before Additional Session Judge Amitabh Rawat, Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Amit Prasad referred to the statement of prosecution witnesses and chat of accused persons in DPSG WhatsApp group.
He also argued that there were phone calls between Umar Khalid, Nadeem, Khalid Saifi, Natasha Narwal, Jhanvi, Tabrez in the evening of February 24 after the riots had started. Though they were at different places but all of them were well connected.
During his argument, Prasad highlighted the chats referring to violence. He also referred to a statement of a witness in which he said there was a meeting at Chand Bagh and people were asked to gather stones, sticks, red chilli powder and acid.
In this meeting accused including Natasha, Athar, Suleman were present. Other witnesses also said that the same thing took place in a meeting at Seelampur where members of Pinjra Tod were asking women to bring sticks, red chilli powder, bottles etc.
Prasad also referred to another witness, during his arguments, which said that he attended a meeting in which Umar Khalid was saying that 'Bhashan se kuch nahi hoga, Khoon Bahana padega (Speeches won't achieve anything; there is a need for bloodbath).
SPP during his argument also shared footage of CCTVs installed near Chand Bagh area in which preparation for violence was captured on February 24, 2020.
"It shows the mob with sticks, swords and other weapons. After some time the CCTV cameras were dislocated and disconnected. All this was started after police action on protestors at Noor e Ilahi area," said Prasad.
He also argued that the preparation of the attack on police officials in the Chand Bagh area was done at around 1 pm on February 24, 2020. The footage also shows the visuals of people attacking the police officials.
By referring to the killing of a policeman in the Maujpur area, he said that "this news was a game-changer."
"Since then the accused person and their masters had started to change their narrative. This news was shared at 4.40 pm in their WhatsApp group," he added.
Prasad argued before the court that some members of the group criticised this violence. But at the same time, the masters were silent on what was happening.
Then he referred to WhatsApp chats in which attempts to shift the blame were done. Some of them said the escalation of violence happened only after the call of Bharat Band by the Bhim Army. Some of them said if the police were serious in taking action, then Kapil Mishra would have been arrested.
He also referred to phone calls made among the JCC group members after riots broke out in the Northeast Delhi area and after the killing of police personnel in Maujpur. At the time Umar Khalid was in Bihar, he called up Natasha Narwal, who was incharge of Jafrabad.
Amit Prasad also referred to a chat message by Yogendra Yadav in which he was talking about the irresponsible behaviour of a girl.
SPP also argued that after the first arrest there were messages to delete the group and clear the chats and there was a message that we can reconvene on Signal. After that data from mobile phones was deleted. No data till April 2020 was found from the mobile of Umar Khalid whereas he was a participant in chats.
He said that there were messages in the DPSG group planning a solidarity march on March 25 and their mass addition of people in the group was done to show that it is a good group and is involved in some good work. Some people were also removed from the group including Athar and Shadab and two others.