17,000-page Delhi riots chargesheet names only anti-CAA protesters

NEW DELHI: Fifteen people, all linked to protests against the centre's controversial new citizenship law and none from the campaign in its favour, has been named by the police in a vast charge sheet filed over the Delhi riots that raged through the capital city in February this year, leaving more than 50 people dead and property worth crores damaged.

The 17,500-page filing in two steel trunks included more than 2,600 pages detailing the charges against the accused and thousands of pages of annexures. Charges include those under the tough anti-terror Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Among those named are suspended AAP Councillor Tahir Hussain and a number of student activists. The police also said that their investigation in the case is ongoing and it expects to file a supplementary chargesheet against the accused who have not been named so far.

"These conspirators were in direct touch with the foot soldiers that resulted in the riots in North East Delhi in February," the police told the court, adding two WhatsApp groups were used to engineer the riots in Seelampur and Jafrabad that saw some of the worst violence.

"Conspirators planned the riots while middle ring of leaders at the area level executed the plan through the foot soldiers," the police said, claiming that students walked some 20 km to participate in the protests.

"This was not a democratic protest since beginning. The very beginning of this protest was for instigating violence," the police told the court, flagging the "chakka jam" or roadblocks as an undemocratic way of protest and intended at inciting violence.