A Delhi court on Friday sentenced former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain and four others to life imprisonment for the murder of Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer Ankit Sharma during the 2020 Delhi riots, reports Bar & Bench.
Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Singh of the Karkardooma Court rejected the prosecution’s plea for the death penalty, holding that although the crime was marked by “nauseating and sickening” brutality, the convicts were not beyond reformation.
The court observed that Sharma was caught by a “murderous mob baying for blood” during the communal violence and that his body was later thrown into a drain after the killing. It said the brutality of the offence made it an aggravating circumstance, but noted that the prosecution had failed to establish that the convicts had a violent disposition or were beyond reform.
Besides Hussain, the court awarded life imprisonment to Nazir, Asim, Javed and Anas, who were convicted of murder, rioting, promoting enmity and other offences under the Indian Penal Code.
Delhi Police had sought capital punishment, describing Sharma’s killing as a cold-blooded and brutal murder. The defence argued that the case did not fall within the “rarest of rare” category required for awarding the death penalty.
The case stems from an FIR lodged by Sharma’s father, Ravinder Kumar, after the IB officer went missing during the riots on February 25, 2020. Sharma’s body was later recovered from the Khajuri Khas drain, with the complainant alleging that Hussain and his associates were responsible for the killing.
