Delhi Court Sentences Ex-AAP Councillor, Four Others to Life in IB Staffer's Killing
A Delhi court on Tuesday sentenced former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain and four others to life imprisonment for the murder of Intelligence Bureau (IB) staffer Ankit Sharma during the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots. The court, while terming the crime “extremely brutal,” rejected the prosecution's plea for the death penalty, noting that the convicts were not proven to be beyond reform.
Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Singh of Karkardooma Court observed that the victim was targeted solely on the basis of his religion during the communal violence that followed protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The judge described the attack as “fierce, unrelenting, and from such close quarters” and noted that the body was dragged and thrown into a drain. However, the court maintained that capital punishment should be reserved as the “last resort.”
“It is now firmly established in our criminal jurisprudence that death is the penalty of the last resort. It is only when the State establishes that the convict has travelled so far down the road to perdition that there is no coming back, and that he has become a menace of such magnitude that the society must be rid of him, that capital punishment is to be resorted to,” the order stated.
The court said the prosecution had not brought on record any evidence to show that the convicts had a violent disposition or a propensity towards crime, nor was it shown that they had previously been involved in any violent crime. It further noted that mitigating circumstances, including the fact that several convicts are sole breadwinners, balanced the scales.
On Monday, the Delhi Police had demanded the death penalty, with Special Public Prosecutor Madhukar Pandey arguing that the convicts had “turned into butchers” during the crime. Defence counsel countered that the death penalty should be reserved for the rarest of rare cases and pointed to the lack of evidence of criminal conspiracy and the police's failure to control the mob.
The five convicts were found guilty on July 13. Tahir Hussain was convicted of murder and rioting, among other charges, but was acquitted of criminal conspiracy. The other four convicts were identified as Nazim, Qasim, and two others whose names were not specified in the court order.
The case relates to the killing of Ankit Sharma, whose body was found in a drain in Chand Bagh area on February 26, 2020, during the riots that swept Northeast Delhi. The violence, which lasted several days, resulted in over 50 deaths and hundreds of injuries.
This sentencing marks a significant step in the legal process following the riots. The court's decision to reject the death penalty underscores the principle that capital punishment is an exception, not the norm, and that reformation remains a possibility even in grave crimes.
