'Asif Mohammad Khan (MLA of Okhla assembly seat) and others are discharged as the police did not file the charge sheet within the stipulated period of three years,' additional chief metropolitan magistrate Naveen Arora said.
In a setback to the police, a Delhi court has absolved an RJD MLA and 10 builders of charges of assaulting policemen trying to stop illegal construction in south Delhi in 2004, pointing out that the charge sheet was not filed within three years of the alleged offence.
"Asif Mohd Khan (MLA of Okhla assembly seat) and others are discharged as the police did not file the charge sheet within the stipulated period of three years," additional chief metropolitan magistrate Naveen Arora said.
Khan, then an MCD councillor, and 10 others were accused of attacking policemen on the afternoon of July 29, 2004 when they had gone to stop illegal construction being carried out at Gaffar Manzil area in Jamia Nagar here. An FIR was filed 13 days after the incident.
The police, which were to file the charge sheet by August 11, 2007, submitted it after the lapse of nearly 10 months.
They took the plea that the charge sheet could not be filed as the rioters had set ablaze the police picket at Jamia Nagar on September 22, 2007.
Tanveer Ahmed Khan, counsel for the lawmaker, rebutted the claim and sought discharge of the accused, saying "the alleged burning of police picket happened much after the lapse of the stipulated three-year period which had expired on August 11, 2007 itself."
The court allowed the plea of the defence counsel and said the plea of police seeking condonation of delay in filing of the chargesheet was neither "justifiable nor justified" and the accused deserved to be acquitted.
The MLA and others were booked under sections 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of official duty), 353 (assaulting public servants) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
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