First sentencing in Delhi riots, man gets 5 years in jail for putting house ablaze

In what comes as the first sentencing in the ill-famed Delhi riots case, a court in the national capital on Thursday punished one Dinesh Yadav with a term of five years in jail for offences that involved rioting and deliberately setting the residence of a Muslim family on fire.

Yadav is the first person convicted in connection with the February 2020 riots; in December last year, additional sessions judge Virender Bhatt had held him accountable for being part of a riotous mob that set the said house ablaze. Yadav's sentencing today, condemning him to five years in prison, was also pronounced by Justice Bhatt.

A detailed order on the sentencing is still awaited; however, it was reported that Yadav has also been directed to pay a fine of ₹12,000.

The prosecution held that Yadav was an “active member of the riotous mob” and participated in vandalising and putting on fire the house of a 73-year-old woman named Manori on February 25 night.

Manori had alleged that a mob of around 150-200 rioters attacked her house when her family was not present and looted all the articles and even the buffalo.

According to excerpts published by Bar and Bench, the court noted, “The fact that the accused also belongs to the Hindu community and was present in the mob armed with a wooden rod which mob resorted to violence against the Muslims, indicates that he shared the common object of the unlawful assembly.”

Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi in February 2020, after the violence between the Citizenship (Amendment) Act supporters and its protesters spiraled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and over 700 injured.

The 25-year-old Dinesh Yadav was arrested in connection with the Delhi riots case on June 8, 2020, but charges were framed against him by the court on August 3, 2021, to which he pleaded not guilty and claimed trial. He was convicted on December 6 later that year.