Delhi: On 27 July 2026, a sessions court in Madhya Pradesh acquitted all 11 Muslim men accused of rioting and arson during the Ram Navami violence of April 2022 in the south-western district of Khargone, after they had spent between 462 and 827 days in jail.
Eight of 13 prosecution witnesses identified no one; the sole implicating eyewitness was contradicted by her own family; no identification parade was ever held; and forensic tests found no trace of petrol on the seized material.
Two of them, the investigating officer and the man who printed the scene photographs, saw nothing themselves; and the father and brother of the sole implicating eyewitness said the rioters were masked.
The judgment, delivered on 27 July by fourth additional sessions Judge Mukesh Nath at the Sessions Court, Khargone (Mandleshwar), is an audit of an investigation that could not explain how its accused were chosen.
This article is based principally on the Hindi judgment of 27 July and an English translation arranged by this author, and publicly accessible High Court bail orders.
In Khargone, the State moved from riot to accusation in two days. It took the trial more than four years to ask how the accused had been identified.
The chronology is exact.
Communal violence broke out during the Ram Navami procession in Khargone on 10 April 2022, after stones were thrown near Talab Chowk.
One person died and at least 24 were injured; houses were burnt; a curfew followed.
This story was originally published in article-14.com. Read the full story here.