Indian court acquits 11 Muslim men after years in jail over rioting charges
Judge cites weak evidence and unreliable witnesses in 2022 riot case as rights group says men spent up to 827 days behind bars before being cleared
NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — An Indian court has acquitted 11 Muslim men who spent up to 827 days in jail over allegations they participated in communal violence during a Hindu religious procession, ruling that prosecutors failed to produce credible evidence linking them to the 2022 unrest.
The Sessions Court in Khargone district, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, cleared all 11 defendants after finding that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
According to the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), which provided legal assistance to the accused, the men remained imprisoned for between 462 and 827 days before securing their acquittal.
In its judgment, the court identified major weaknesses in the prosecution’s case, noting that eight of the 13 prosecution witnesses — including most of the complainants — failed to identify any of the accused during the trial after turning hostile.
The court also observed that investigators never conducted a Test Identification Parade despite disputes over the identities of the alleged attackers.
Prosecutors had accused the men of participating in a mob that allegedly attacked Hindu homes with stones and petrol bombs during violence that erupted on April 10, 2022, during a Ram Navami procession.
They faced charges including rioting, arson, criminal conspiracy, trespassing and violations of India’s Explosive Substances Act.
The court, however, found that the prosecution relied largely on a single eyewitness whose statement was recorded 51 days after the violence without explanation and whose name did not appear in the original police complaint.
It also noted that forensic testing found no traces of petrol, diesel or kerosene on material seized during the investigation, undermining allegations that petrol bombs had been used.
The acquittal comes more than four years after communal violence engulfed Khargone during the Hindu festival procession.
One Muslim man was killed, dozens of Muslims were arrested and authorities demolished scores of Muslim-owned homes and businesses in what rights groups described as a disproportionate crackdown on the minority community.
A fact-finding report published by the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism later concluded that Muslims bore the brunt of the violence, suffering the highest number of deaths, injuries and property losses.
The report alleged that many of those arrested were poor laborers and small business owners who had been rounded up without sufficient evidence, while nearly all of the 45 properties demolished by the administration belonged to Muslims.
The report also accused police of failing to adequately protect Muslim neighborhoods during the violence, refusing to register complaints filed by Muslim victims and conducting a one-sided investigation.
It further alleged that inflammatory speeches by Hindu nationalist leaders before the procession and disputes over its route were never meaningfully investigated.
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