NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Friday sentenced former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain and four others to life imprisonment in the murder case of Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer Ankit Sharma, who was killed during the 2020 North-East Delhi riots.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Praveen Singh of the Karkardooma Court awarded life imprisonment to Hussain and the four co-convicts -- Javed, Anas, Nazim and Kasim -- after holding them guilty of offences including murder, kidnapping, rioting and promoting enmity between different groups.
While pronouncing the sentence, the court described the crime as a "very serious" incident and observed that Sharma was "brutally murdered" and his body was left "like an animal”, adding that the incident had "shaken the conscience of society".
Earlier, the Delhi Police had sought the death penalty for the convicts, describing Sharma's killing as a "cold-blooded" and "brutal" murder, and argued that the 51 injuries found on his body reflected the extreme brutality of the assault.
Opposing the prosecution's plea for capital punishment, counsel for Hussain and the other convicts had argued that the case did not fall within the "rarest of rare" category warranting the death sentence.
The defence had also contended that no evidence of criminal conspiracy under Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was established during the trial and urged the court to consider the possibility of Hussain's reformation.
On July 28, the Karkardooma Court had reserved its order on the quantum of sentence after hearing detailed submissions from both sides.
Earlier this month, the court convicted Hussain, Javed, Anas, Nazim and Kasim after holding them guilty of offences including murder, kidnapping, rioting and promoting enmity between different groups.
In its detailed judgment, the court held Hussain guilty under Sections 302 (murder), 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent to secretly and wrongfully confine a person), 188 (disobedience to an order duly promulgated by a public servant), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with a deadly weapon) and 149 of the IPC.
The four co-convicts were also held guilty of the same offences, while all five were acquitted of the charge of criminal conspiracy under Section 120B of the IPC.
The court had also acquitted six other accused, holding that the prosecution failed to establish their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
The case relates to the killing of IB officer Ankit Sharma, whose body was recovered from a drain in the Khajuri Khas area on February 26, 2020, during the communal violence that rocked North-East Delhi.
According to the prosecution, Sharma was caught in the violence near his residence on February 25, 2020, when clashes broke out between two groups near the Chand Bagh Pulia. It was alleged that he was abducted by a mob, assaulted and stabbed multiple times before his body was dumped into a nearby drain.
An FIR was registered at the Dayalpur police station on the complaint of Sharma's father, Ravinder Kumar, who alleged that his son had gone out to purchase household items but never returned.
The violence that rocked North-East Delhi in February 2020 claimed 53 lives, left several others injured and caused damage to property worth crores of rupees.
--IANS
