A WhatsApp group named Kattar Hindut Ekta had been formed during the February Delhi riots to coordinate attacks and murders, and its users had gloated about the killings, police have said in a chargesheet filed in court.

One of the messages cited in the chargesheet and posted on February 25 says: “Brother Lokesh Solanki this side from Ganga Vihar area if any Hindu need any back up then do contact. We have men, arms and ammunitions. I have just killed two Muslims in Bhagirathi Vihar area and thrown them in drain with the help of my team.”

Messages on the WhatsApp group, formed to “take revenge on Muslims”, suggest that its members had bludgeoned to death and thrown into canals and drains nine persons when they refused to chant “Jai Shri Ram”, after ascertaining their religious identity, according to the chargesheet.

The police said the Kattar Hindut Ekta group was created on February 25 and was used to coordinate among members to make available men, arms and ammunition for the mission.

The creator of the WhatsApp group is absconding, the police said in the chargesheet. The group was created at “12.49 Hrs” on February 25. It initially had 125 members, of which 47 had exited the group by March 8, the chargesheet said.

The chargesheet was filed before additional chief metropolitan magistrate Vinod Kumar Gautam on June 29. It names nine persons who had been killed — Hamza, Aamin, Bhure Ali, Mursalin, Aas Mohd, Musharraf, Akil Ahmed, Hashim Ali and his elder brother Aamir Khan.

The court has put the matter up for consideration on July 13. “During the investigation, it has been established that a group of Hindus comprising accused persons — Jatin Sharma, Rishabh Chaudhary, Vivek Panchal, Lokesh Solanki, Pankaj Sharma, Prince, Sumit Chaudhary, Ankit Chaudhary and Himanshu Thakur — along with other identified and unidentified rioters — became active in Ganga Vihar/Bhagirathi Vihar area since the morning of February 25 to 26 midnight and bludgeoned nine Muslim persons to death and injured several persons in Bhagirathi Vihar and other area,” the police said in the chargesheet.

It added: “It shows that they were actively involved in rioting and attacking other community people belonging to different religion i.e. Muslim and during riots they killed many people by attacking them.

“Their modus operandi was, they used to catch the people and ascertain their religion by asking name, address and by their document i.e. identity card and they were forcing them to call ‘Jai Shri Ram’ many times.

“The person who was not calling ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and carrying the… Muslim identity, they were bluntly attacked and thrown into the Main Ganda Nala (dirty drain), Bhagirathi Vihar, Delhi.”

In the first case, on February 26, Hamza was killed by the rioters while he was coming from Mustafabad to Bhagirathi Vihar around 9.15pm, the police said. PTI