A Delhi court on Friday sentenced former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Tahir Hussain and four others to life imprisonment for the murder of Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer Ankit Sharma during the 2020 northeast Delhi riots. The judgment marks a significant milestone in one of the most closely watched criminal cases arising out of the communal violence that shook the national capital in February 2020.
The Karkardooma Court had earlier, on July 13, convicted Tahir Hussain along with Nazim, Kasim, Javed and Anas on charges including murder, criminal conspiracy and other offences linked to Sharma's killing. While the Delhi Police argued that the crime qualified as the "rarest of rare" case deserving capital punishment, the court declined the plea and instead awarded life imprisonment to all five convicts.
According to the prosecution, the convicts were part of an unlawful assembly that abducted and murdered Ankit Sharma during the riots. The court found them guilty of offences including murder, criminal conspiracy, rioting, promoting enmity, assault and the use of criminal force. Hussain, a former AAP councillor, was specifically convicted on multiple counts related to his alleged role in the violence and Sharma's killing.
The Aam Aadmi Party had suspended Hussain shortly after a First Information Report (FIR) was registered against him in 2020. Following the conviction, the party reiterated that it had severed all ties with Hussain immediately after his suspension and that he no longer had any association with the organisation.
The case stems from the death of 26-year-old Intelligence Bureau officer Ankit Sharma, whose killing became one of the defining incidents of the northeast Delhi riots. The FIR was registered on February 26, 2020, based on a complaint filed by Sharma's father, Ravinder Kumar.
In his complaint, Kumar stated that Sharma had returned home from work on February 25 before leaving again around 5 p.m. to purchase household items. When he failed to return, family members searched for him in nearby localities and hospitals before lodging a missing person's complaint the following morning.
Sharma's body was later recovered from a nearby drain. During the trial, prosecutors alleged that he had been brutally attacked and that portions of his body, including his face, had been burned with acid in an attempt to conceal his identity. The prosecution argued that the murder was carried out as part of a criminal conspiracy during the communal violence.
The defence contested the prosecution's claims during the trial, but the court found the evidence sufficient to convict the accused. During the sentencing proceedings, Delhi Police urged the court to impose the death penalty, contending that the nature of the crime warranted the harshest punishment available under law. The court, however, concluded that a sentence of life imprisonment was appropriate.
The murder of Ankit Sharma attracted nationwide attention and became one of the most prominent cases investigated in the aftermath of the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, which claimed more than 50 lives and left hundreds injured. The sentencing of Tahir Hussain and his co-convicts is expected to remain a significant legal development in the long-running judicial proceedings related to the violence.
Leave Your Comment