Key Points

• A Delhi court sentenced former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain and four co-convicts to life imprisonment on July 31 for the murder of Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma.
• Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Singh rejected the prosecution's demand for the death penalty.
• Sharma's body was found in a drain in February 2020 with 51 injuries, during the North East Delhi riots.
• The court had convicted Hussain and the others on July 13 for murder, rioting and related offences, while acquitting Hussain of criminal conspiracy charges.

NEW DELHI, AUGUST 1: A Delhi court sentenced former Aam Aadmi Party councillor Tahir Hussain and four co-convicts to life imprisonment on July 31 for the murder of Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma during the 2020 North East Delhi riots, rejecting the prosecution's demand for the death penalty. Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Singh pronounced the sentence at Delhi's Karkardooma court.

What the Court Found

The court held that the manner in which Sharma was killed was "nauseating and sickening" but did not fall within the "rarest of rare" category that would have justified capital punishment. Delhi Police had pressed for the death penalty, arguing that the brutality of the killing warranted it, and that the convicts showed no mercy during the attack.

The judge noted that Sharma was abducted, assaulted and killed during the communal violence, and that his body was dragged and thrown into a drain. "The savagery did not end there. Instead, the body was strapped like an animal as if the hatred has still not satiated. The body was then thrown into the nallah," the court observed while describing the crime.

The Case Against Hussain

Sharma, who worked with the Intelligence Bureau, went missing on February 25, 2020, during the riots that swept North East Delhi. His father, Ravinder Kumar, filed a missing person's report at the Dayalpur police station the following day. Sharma's body was later recovered from the Khajuri Khas drain, with a post-mortem examination revealing 51 injuries caused by sharp and blunt weapons.

On July 13, the court convicted Hussain and four others for murder, rioting, kidnapping and related offences under provisions of the Indian Penal Code, including sections dealing with murder read with unlawful assembly. The court found the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt on these counts, while acquitting Hussain of a separate charge of criminal conspiracy.

Political Backdrop

Hussain, then a sitting AAP councillor from the Khajuri Khas ward, was suspended from the party following his arrest by Delhi Police in March 2020. He has remained in judicial custody through much of the intervening period, during which he separately sought and was denied interim bail by the Supreme Court to campaign for Delhi Assembly elections while in custody.

The 2020 North East Delhi riots, which broke out on February 24 that year amid clashes between supporters and opponents of the Citizenship Amendment Act, left 53 people dead and around 700 injured. Hussain has also faced separate proceedings, including bail applications in other riot-related FIRs and a case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act tied to an alleged larger conspiracy behind the violence, in which he was named alongside activists Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid.

What's Next

Hussain and his co-convicts retain the option to appeal the conviction and sentence before the Delhi High Court. The verdict is expected to remain a reference point in the broader set of prosecutions still pending from the 2020 riots, several of which continue to move through Delhi's trial courts and the High Court.