PTI
New Delhi
A Delhi court on Monday convicted former Aam Aadmi Party councillor Tahir Hussain and four others in the sensational murder case of Intelligence officer Ankit Sharma, who was attacked by a mob and his body dumped in a drain during the 2020 northeast Delhi riots.
Hussain broke down in court as Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Singh pronounced him guilty, while his counsel tried to console him. He was an AAP councillor at the time of the incident but was later suspended by the party when his name came up in the case. The court also acquitted six other accused.
The court convicted Hussain under IPC sections 302 (murder), 153A (promoting enmity), 149 (rioting), 355 (assault on criminal force and murder) read with 149, 148 (rioting with deadly weapon), 147 (punishment for rioting). However, Hussain was acquitted of IPC Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 109 (punishment for abetment) read with 149. It also convicted Nazim, Qasim, Javed, Anas under the same charges except murder.
The court acquitted Haseen alias Mullaji alias Salman, Firoz, Gulfam, Soyab, Sameer Khan, Muntajim alias Musa in the case.
The judge orally pronounced the verdict in the presence of all the accused and directed the police to take into custody Anas and Javed, who were out on bail. The detailed judgment is still awaited. The court has also not listed the matter for arguments on sentence.
Special Public Prosecutor Madhukar Pandey said after the judgment that it was society that had lost, and the verdict was not a victory for either side. He said the victim’s family had suffered, and now the family of the convicted accused would also suffer. “In such cases, everyone loses,” he said.
The case pertains to an FIR registered at Dayalpur police station on the complaint of Ravinder Kumar, father of Ankit Sharma. According to the complaint, Sharma, who was posted with the Intelligence Bureau, had returned home from office on February 25, 2020, before stepping out again.
When he did not return for a long time, his family began searching for him, only to be informed by locals that his son had been killed and his body thrown into the Khajuri Khas drain near a mosque in the Chand Bagh pulia area. Sharma’s body was subsequently recovered from the drain.
In his complaint, Kumar alleged that his son was murdered by Hussain and others. It said they had allegedly assembled at Hussain’s office, and Ankit’s body was disposed of after the murder.
On March 24, 2023, a Delhi court framed charges against Hussain and 10 others.
According to the chargesheet, police said Hussain was leading the mob from his house and also from the Masjid near Chand Bagh Pulia on February 24 and 25, 2020, and gave it a communal colour. He provoked and instigated the Muslims against Hindus saying that Hindu people had killed a number of Muslims and “have set fire in their shops at Sherpur Chowk and let no Hindu go scot free”.
On his provocation, the mob turned violent and began to burn shops and pelt stones and petrol bombs on the Hindu people and also targeted their houses. The uncontrolled mob turned into rioters and in the process of rioting caught hold of Ankit Sharma and dragged him to Chand Bagh Pulia and caused his death by inflicting injuries using sharp and blunt objects/weapons and threw his dead body in the nala, the chargesheet alleged.
The case stems from the communal violence that erupted in northeast Delhi in February 2020 during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. The clashes, marked by incidents of stone-pelting, arson and vandalism, had left 53 people dead and scores of others injured.
