A Delhi court, on Saturday, convicted former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain for abetment of rioting in a case related to arson in the Dayalpur area of northeast Delhi during the 2020 riots.
The court acquitted 12 other co-accused of all other charges. The order was passed by Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai of the Karkardooma Courts.
The FIR was registered under Sections 147, 148 and 149 (rioting), 427 (mischief causing damage to property), 436 (mischief by fire) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), according to LiveLaw.
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This is the second conviction of Tahir Hussain. He was previously convicted in the murder case of Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma, who was killed during the 2020 Delhi riots. Hussain was sentenced to life imprisonment in that case.
The court had observed that while the crime was brutal and the victim was killed by a murderous mob, the prosecution had failed to establish that the convicts were beyond reform or that their release after serving their sentences would pose a threat to society.
Special Public Prosecutor Madhukar Pandey argued that Sharma had been abducted and brutally assaulted, sustaining 51 injuries, 18 of them inflicted with sharp-edged weapons.
“Ankit Sharma was abducted and relentlessly assaulted in a hapless manner. A total of 51 injuries were made upon the victim and 18 of them were through sharp-edged weapons. It is not a case where somebody was stabbed once or thrice,” he said, adding that the accused continued to assault Sharma even after his death.
“The accused were not human beings, they were animals. They did not have respect for the dead and should therefore be kept behind bars and given the death sentence,” the prosecutor added.
