New Delhi, July 31: Former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain and four co-accused were handed life imprisonment sentences by a Delhi court on Friday for the murder of Intelligence Bureau officer Ankit Sharma during the 2020 Delhi riots. Pronouncing the verdict under heavy security with senior police officials and legal counsel present, Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Singh noted that the prosecution failed to prove the convicts were beyond reformation. The prosecution had aggressively pushed for the death penalty, arguing that the brutality of the act warranted the highest punishment.
Special public prosecutor Madhukar Pandey argued that those who are asking for mercy today should have shown mercy themselves, maintaining that no mercy was shown from anyone’s side and no one even took Ankit to the hospital. He asserted that the group acted without leniency after committing such a brutal murder.
The sentencing comes after the court’s July 13 conviction, which established that Tahir Hussain led a heavily armed mob carrying animus against Hindus to engage in arson, rioting, and loot. Sharma was attacked by the mob during the violent clashes, and his body was subsequently recovered from a nearby drain.
The court declared that the prosecution successfully proved members of the unlawful assembly knew that pursuing their common objective could result in death. Hussain was convicted under several Indian Penal Code sections, including Section 302 for murder, Section 365 for kidnapping, Sections 147 and 148 for rioting with deadly weapons, Section 153A for promoting enmity, and Section 188 for disobeying public orders, all read alongside Section 149.
