Delhi Riots Chargesheet Refers To Tablighi Jamaat Link

A chargesheet has been filed in connection with the riots in Delhi in February this year, in which a school and an adjacent sweet shop was burnt and a man trapped inside the shop died. The police had named 18 people, claiming Faisal Farooque, the owner of a nearby school, was the key conspirator in the case.

The police also claimed that Faisal Farooque had links with prominent members of Islamist group Popular Front of India, women's collective "Pinjra Tod" which works for the rights of women college students, the Jamia Coordination Committee of the prestigious Jamia Millia Islamia, the headquarters of the Tablighi Jamaat and some Muslim clerics.

Faisal Farooque's Rajdhani School and the DRP Convent School, which was targeted in Delhi's Shiv Vihar locality, were adjacent to each other. He was among the 18 people arrested after the DRP Convent School was set on fire.

The Anil Sweet Shop, located across the road, was also set on fire and one of its employees, Dilbar Negi, who was trapped inside, died.

The chargesheet said Faisal Farooque had "hatched a conspiracy to precipitate and aggravate riots, in and around Rajdhani School".

"On Farooque's instructions, the adjacent and rival DRP Convent School, 2 parking lots run by the other party and the building of Anil Sweets was systematically destroyed by the mob," the police said in its chargesheet.

The rioters, the police claimed, had camped inside and fired bullets from the terrace of Rajdhani School.

"They also threw petrol bombs, acid, bricks, stones and other missiles using an improvised large iron catapult, specially installed for the purpose, from the terrace of Rajdhani School," the chargesheet read.

"The rioters had used ropes to climb down from the terrace of Rajdhani School into the compound of DRP Convent School and then the mob had set the school on fire. The mob had looted the computers and other expensive items from DRP Convent School," the chargesheet also said.