Sitaram Yechury, Yogendra Yadav, Jayati Ghosh not charged in Delhi riots chargesheet, clarifies police

Delhi Police on Sunday (September 13) clarified that Sitaram Yechury, Yogendra Yadav and Jayati Ghosh are not named as co-conspirators in the supplementary chargesheet of Delhi riots filed by Delhi Police.

"As far as tweet by a news agency regarding Delhi Police naming academicians&politicians in supplementary charge sheet of case related to Jaffrabad riots is concerned,it's mentioned in one of online news agency report that names are part of disclosure statement of one of the accused in connection with organizing and  addressing the Anti-CAA protests. It is worth mentioning that the disclosure statement has been truthfully recorded as narrated by the accused person," stressed Delhi Police.

The police also said that a person is not arraigned as an accused only on the basis of disclosure statement. But Delhi Police added that legal action is taken only on the existence of sufficient corroborative evidence. 

On Saturday (September 12), it was reported that the Delhi Police had named CPI (M) general secretary Yechury, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav, economist Jayati Ghosh, Delhi University professor and activist Apoorvanand, and documentary filmmaker Rahul Roy as co-conspirators in February Delhi riots case in its supplementary chargesheet.

They have been accused of asking anti-CAA protesters to go to ¨any extreme¨, spreading discontent in the community by calling CAA/NRC anti-Muslim, and organise demonstrations to “malign the image of the Government of India”.

According to PTI, the names appeared in a supplementary chargesheet filed by the police on the riots in North-East District between February 23 and 26, which claimed 53 lives and left 581 injured, 97 of them having gunshot wounds.

The names of these eminent personalities cropped up in the chargesheet on the basis of the confessions of three students - women’s collective Pinjra Tod members and JNU students Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, and Gulfisha Fathima of Jamia Milia Islamia - in the Jafrabad violence, from where the riots spread to other parts of north-east Delhi.