Delhi riots: Convicts' kin to challenge life sentences in Ankit Sharma case, deny Tahir Hussain link
New Delhi: The families of two men sentenced to life imprisonment in the murder of Intelligence Bureau employee Ankit Sharma during the February 2020 Delhi riots, along with former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain, have said they will appeal against the trial court's verdict in the Delhi High Court.
Mohammad Asif, brother of convicts Nazim and Kasim, told ANI that his brothers were falsely implicated in the case and denied any connection with Tahir Hussain. "We will appeal in the High Court. One of my brothers, the younger one, Kasim, lived in the village. The other one too had gone to the village two days before the incident. Tahir Hussain's house is very far away; we had no connection at all," Asif said. He also alleged police misconduct, stating, "The police brought them in and filed a case against them."
The trial court, in its verdict, awarded life imprisonment to all five convicts, including Nazim, Kasim, and Tahir Hussain. The prosecution had argued that Sharma suffered 51 injuries and was brutally assaulted before his body was dumped into a drain in the Chand Bagh area.
Speaking over the phone, Ankit Sharma's brother Ankur Sharma expressed disappointment that the court did not impose the death penalty. "Our demand was that the court should treat this case as a 'rarest of rare' case, and that the guilty should receive the harshest possible punishment. They should have been given the death penalty; that is what we wanted," he said.
Ankur Sharma added that they would continue to seek justice in higher courts. "As the case moves to the Delhi High Court or the Supreme Court, we want my brother to get justice there as well, and the guilty should receive the severest punishment. An example should be set so that such an incident never happens to anyone else," he said.
The case is one of several related to the Northeast Delhi riots, which erupted in February 2020 over the Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens. The riots resulted in at least 53 deaths and hundreds of injuries. Ankit Sharma, a 26-year-old IB staffer, was found dead in a drain near his home in Chand Bagh on February 26, 2020.
The appeal process in the Delhi High Court will be closely watched, as it involves questions of evidence, procedural fairness, and the extent of culpability in riot-related violence. Both the convicts' families and the victim's family have expressed confidence in the judicial process, though their expectations diverge sharply.
Legal experts note that an appeal against a trial court's conviction is a fundamental right under Indian law. The High Court will examine the trial record, evidence, and legal submissions before deciding whether to uphold, modify, or overturn the verdict.
