Tahir Hussain Gets Life Term in 2020 Delhi Riots Case

Synopsis

Tahir Hussain, the former member of the AAP council, plus four other accused have been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Delhi court for murdering Intelligence Bureau officer Ankit Sharma in the February 2020 riots. The court dismissed the prosecution's request for the death penalty saying the case did not fit the "rarest of rare" category, but it said it was "one of utmost brutality".

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Court rules in one of the riots' biggest cases

Former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain and four others were sentenced to life in prison by a Delhi court on Friday for murdering an Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer, Ankit Sharma, in the communal violence that engulfed the metropolis's north-east area in February 2020.

Amid the tight security, Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Singh noted that the murders were not an end to the savagery as his body was dragged in the nearby drain as if the hatred was not quenched. The judge did not give the death penalty despite multiple reports that he felt that the prosecution failed to prove that the convicts were “incurable and will be a source of danger to the society”, and the case didn't meet the “rarest of rare” standard.

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What the Prosecution wanted

The Delhi Police had demanded death penalty. As widely reported earlier, Special Public Prosecutor Madhukar Pandey had argued in court that Sharma had not been shown any mercy and the accused could now not plead for it as they had committed such a brutal murder.

The charges and sentences are as:

Hussain was found guilty of murder under the Indian Penal Code, Section 302, as well as for kidnapping, rioting, rioting with a deadly weapon and promoting enmity between two groups.

In addition to the life sentence for the four co-convicts (who were sentenced to life jail and Rs 25,000 fine each), for related offences, the court gave sentences ranging from 6 months to 7 years to them for rioting and abduction.

Hussain was separately fined in all the sections, including Rs 5 lakh in murder under the murder section, with default sentences to be imposed in absence of payment of the fine.

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The journey of a Councillor to a Convict

Hussain, who was then 48, was the AAP councillor of Nehru Vihar ward of northeast Delhi during the riots that erupted in February 2020 killing over 50 people during anti-CAA protests. Within days of his name appearing in connection with the killing, he was expelled from AAP, and arrested in March 2020.

Prosecutors claimed his rooftop was where he stored stones and petrol bombs thrown in the clashes and they recovered his body from a drain by Hussain's home, which had 51 wounds.

Reactions and What's Next

While escorted out of court, Hussain told reporters, as quoted by Tribune, that he hoped that "justice will be meted out by a higher court," in Delhi. However, BJP leader Kapil Mishra had asked for the sentence to be upgraded to death on appeal, stating that the killing has crossed the "rarest of rare" category in his social media post.

Both sides are likely to appeal to the Delhi High Court against the conviction, and the prosecution is expected to appeal for the death sentence again.