A Delhi court acquitted AAP MLA Parveen Kumar on Monday in two cases for allegedly defacing public property by putting up his own and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's photos at two separate places on two occasions in 2020.

In the first case, Kumar was accused of defacing a school in Delhi's Nehru Nagar by putting up his own photos along with those of Kejriwal on its main gate in January 2020.

In the second case, the lawmaker was accused of defacing an electricity pole in the Lajpat Nagar area in the same month by putting up his and the chief minister's photos.

Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Vidhi Gupta Anand said in both the orders that neither any ocular evidence nor any documentary evidence, including video footage or bills of printing, was brought on record that could prove that the posters were in fact pasted by the accused himself or at his instructions.

"Further, the prosecution could not even prove that the posters were printed at the instance of the accused.... There are several lacunae in the prosecution case, which remained open till the end of the trial," the magistrate said.

The only connection of the accused with the posters that the prosecution could establish was that the posters contained his photo, which by no means is sufficient to bring home the guilt of the accused, the magistrate said.

The accused could not be held liable for the offence on the basis of mere allegations, she added.

"From the scrutiny of the evidence, it is apparent that even though the act of defacement as such has been brought on record by the prosecution, it has miserably failed to bring any evidence on record that it was committed by the accused," the magistrate said.