A Delhi court has acquitted 12 men accused of murdering two persons during the riots that took place in the national capital in February 2020, PTI reported on Monday.

Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala of the Karkardooma Court on Friday said that there was no evidence on record to show that any of the accused men were part of the mob accused of killing the two persons.

Chats on the messaging application WhatsApp of one of the men accused in the case, Lokesh Kumar Solanki, in which he allegedly confessed to the two murders, were not “substantive evidence”, Pramachala added.

Clashes had broken out in North East Delhi in February 2020 between supporters of the Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposing it. The violence left 53 dead and hundreds injured.

The current case pertained to the alleged killing of two men, Aamin and Bhure Ali, during the riots.

First information reports were filed at the Gokulpuri Police Station in the matter under several charges, including rioting, murder, unlawful assembly, promoting enmity between communities and destruction of evidence.

In its chargesheet in one of the FIRs, the police said that information was received on March 1, 2020, about a body that was found in a drain in Bhagirathi Vihar in the city, The New Indian Express reported. The body was of a man named Bhure Ali.

In the other case, Aamin was allegedly killed by rioters on 25 February, 2020, around 9.30 pm near Brijpuri Pulia, The New Indian Express reported. His body was also found in a drain in the area.

In its order on Friday, the court in Delhi said that evidence submitted by the prosecution about messages being exchanged by Solanki confessing to the murders on a WhatsApp group could not be used as substantive or primary evidence, PTI reported.

“Such posts may be put in the group solely to become a hero in the estimation of other members of the group,” PTI quoted Pramachala as saying. “It could also be a boast without truth. Therefore, the relied-upon chats cannot be substantive evidence to show that the accused, Lokesh Solanki, had actually killed two Muslim persons.”

The judge added that the chats could, at the most, be used as corroborative evidence.

The court also noted that the prosecution had relied on the same WhatsApp chats to support similar allegations of murder against the accused men in several other cases as well.

Although the offence of murder was established, the details of the offence, including time and place, were not proved, the judge said. He added that another question that remained unanswered was whether the offence was committed by an unlawful assembly consisting of five or more persons.

“It is only a formality to say that there is no evidence on the record to show that any of the accused was a member of the culprit mob,” PTI quoted the judge as saying.

“I find that charges levelled against the accused persons are not proved at all,” he added.

Apart from Solanki, others acquitted in the matter were Pankaj Sharma, Ankit Chaudhary, Prince, Jatin Sharma, Himanshu Thakur, Vivek Panchal, Rishabh Chaudhary, Sumit Chaudhary, Tinku Arora, Sandeep and Sahil.

The Delhi Police has claimed that the violence in February 2020 was part of a larger conspiracy to defame the Narendra Modi government and was plotted by those who organised the protests against the contentious citizenship law.