Congress MLA acquitted in 15-yr-old assault case

A court here has acquitted a Congress MLA and another man of the charges of hurting and assaulting MCD officials who tried to stop unauthorised construction of a property, terming the police probe as "faulty".
Metropolitan Magistrate Pawan Kumar acquitted Okhla MLA Asif Mohammad Khan, who recently joined Congress party, and Rizwan on the ground that testimonies of two MCD officials, who were allegedly assaulted by them, were contradictory.
"The testimonies of prosecution witnesses (two MCD officials) are contradictory to each other. Further, it is the improved version of the statement recorded under Section 161 of the CrPC. The deposition of material witnesses did not find any corroboration from the testimony of investigating officer.

"PW1 and PW3 (two MCD officials)are not trustworthy and reliable and hence the accused persons cannot be convicted on the uncorroborated testimony of the witnesses," the court said.
"Keeping in view the contradictory and uncorroborated testimony of PW1 and PW3 and further the faulty investigation, I am of the considered view that the prosecution miserably failed to establish the charges under the provisions of the IPC against both the accused beyond reasonable doubt," the magistrate said.
The court agreed with the arguments of advocate Tanveer Ahmed Khan, counsel for the MLA, that there were contradiction in the statements of the two MCD officials, including that one of them said police were called by him while the other said the labourers had informed the police.

Asif Khan, earlier associated with RJD party, and Rizwan were acquitted of the charges of voluntarily causing hurt and assault to deter public servant from discharge of his duty.

According to the prosecution, an FIR was registered by MCD's Junior Engineer Rakesh Kumar Jain alleging that Khan, Rizwan and one Ali Raza Zaidi, who died during the trial, had assaulted him and his colleague R K Sharma and some labourers.
Jain said that on the instruction of Deputy Commissioner (Central Zone) regarding unauthorized construction of a property in Jamia Nagar here, he had gone to the area on May 13, 1998 and had asked the labourers to stop the work but they did not listen to him.

Thereafter, Khan, who was the then councillor of the area, and Rizwan came with other persons manhandled him and his colleague Sharma and also pelted stones at them and at other labourers, the FIR said.
Police rescued the MCD officials from the mob and a case was registered against them.