CM Rekha welcomes Tahir Hussain verdict
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Friday welcomed a court’s decision sentencing former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain and five others to life imprisonment in the murder of Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma during the 2020 Delhi riots. The Chief Minister directly questioned why AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia had stood in support of Hussain even after his arrest.
In a post on X, the Chief Minister said the verdict reinforces public faith in the judicial process. “Today, justice has triumphed. This verdict further strengthens the faith of every citizen of the country in the law and the judiciary,” she said.
She escalated her attack on the AAP, saying the people of Delhi now demand answers. “Tahir Hussain was arrested on charges of murder, yet even after that, Mr Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia stood in his support. They kept trying relentlessly to save him. Why? Will Mr Kejriwal tell the people of Delhi? Was it under their patronage that people like Tahir Hussain conspired to incite riots?” she said.
Delhi Law Minister Kapil Mishra said the life imprisonment sentence is the beginning of justice and expressed hope that it would be upgraded. “The cruelty with which Ankit Sharma was killed, stabbed with knives even after death, the body thrown into a drain, this is certainly the rarest of rare. It is hoped that in the High Court, this life imprisonment will be converted to the death penalty,” Mishra said on X.
Education Minister Ashish Sood said the verdict vindicates the Delhi Police and the prosecution. “The court’s verdict completely vindicates the stand of the Delhi Police and the prosecution, which painstakingly uncovered the sinister blueprint of violence, hatred, and destruction orchestrated during the 2020 Delhi riots.
Justice has finally been served to the family of young IB officer Ankit Sharma, who fell victim to a savage and premeditated assault,” he said. Sood described the verdict as a devastating indictment of the AAP, alleging that the party had provided political patronage and municipal power to individuals who turned official premises into launchpads for violence and mob terror.
Ankit Sharma, a 26-year-old Intelligence Bureau staffer, was killed during the February 2020 Delhi riots that broke out in northeast Delhi during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. His body was recovered from a drain near Chand Bagh, the area in which Hussain, then a serving AAP councillor, had his residence. Sharma’s family had alleged that Hussain’s house was used as a base by rioters and that Hussain was directly involved in the killing. Over 50 people died in the riots, which caused widespread destruction of property across northeast Delhi.
A Delhi court on Friday sentenced former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain and four co-convicts to life imprisonment for the murder of Intelligence Bureau officer Ankit Sharma during the 2020 Delhi riots, saying the case did not fall within the “rarest of rare” category warranting death penalty.
The prosecution had vehemently sought death penalty for all the five accused, saying they fell to the “level of being animals” while relentlessly assaulting Sharma. Hussain was sentenced to six months’ rigorous imprisonment under IPC Section 188, three years under Section 153A, two years under Section 147, three years under Section 148, seven years under Section 365 and imprisonment for life under Section 302 IPC. All the sentences will run concurrently.
He was also fined Rs 1,000 under IPC Section 188, Rs 20,000 each under Sections 153A, 147 and 148, Rs 50,000 under Section 365 and Rs 5 lakh under Section 302, with default sentences prescribed for non-payment. The court noted that the State had not brought any material on record to show that any of the convicts had a violent disposition or previous involvement in violent crimes.
