A Delhi court on Friday sentenced former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain and four other convicts to life imprisonment for the murder of Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer Ankit Sharma during the Delhi riots of 2020.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Praveen Singh of the Karkardooma Court rejected the prosecution's plea for death penalty and instead sentenced the five convicts to life in jail. The court said that while the barbarity of the crime was "nauseating and sickening", the convicts are not beyond reformation.The Delhi Police had sought death penalty for Hussain and other convicts, stating that Sharma’s murder was “cold-blooded” and brutal.
“Those who want mercy should also show mercy. They have no evidence to show that any mercy was shown by any person to carry this person to a hospital,” the Delhi Police counsel told the court. The plea for death penalty was opposed by the counsel representing Hussain and other convicts - Nazir, Asim, Javed and Anas. It was stated that death penalty can be awarded only in the rarest of rare cases. The court was told that there was no evidence of conspiracy and that members of the mob that attacked Sharma have been acquitted in the case.
Hussain was convicted for offences under Sections 188 (disobedience to an order promulgated by a public servant), 153A (promoting enmity between groups), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting armed with a deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent to secretly and wrongfully confine a person), and 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code. The court also convicted Nazir, Asim, Javed and Anas for the same offences.
The First Information Report (FIR) in the matter was lodged on a complaint by Ankit Sharma's father, Ravinder Kumar, on February 26, 2020. He alleged that demonstrations by anti-CAA and pro-CAA protesters went on for two-three days at Chand Bagh Pulia, Main Karawal Nagar Road, in which incidents of stone pelting, brick batting, arson, firing and sabotage had taken place from both sides.
He claimed that Hussain, the then municipal councillor whose office was nearby, had gathered many goons in his office. With their help, he had pelted stones, petrol bombs and also fired shots from the rooftop of the office, creating an atmosphere of fear in the public.
Ravinder further alleged that on February 25, 2020, his son went out to buy household goods but did not return for a long time, prompting him to file a missing persons complaint. He was informed by locals that a boy had been thrown into the Khajuri Khas nala from the Masjid of Chand Bagh pulia after he was killed. Subsequently, Ankit's body was recovered from Khajuri Khas nala near Chand Bagh Pulia.
In his complaint, Ravinder raised strong suspicion that his son was killed by Tahir Hussain and his goons, who had gathered in his office and after killing his son, threw his body into the drain.
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