New Delhi, July 31: A Delhi court on Friday sentenced former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain alongside four individuals to life imprisonment in connection with the savage murder of IB officer Ankit Sharma during the 2020 Delhi riots. Delivering the order in the physical presence of the accused, Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Singh affirmed that life imprisonment was appropriate since the state could not establish that the convicts were incapable of being reformed. The decision was reached despite intense arguments from the Delhi Police Crime Branch advocating for the maximum capital punishment.
The prosecution team maintained that the convicts descended to extreme levels during the relentless assault on Sharma. Special public prosecutor Madhukar Pandey stated that Sharma was brutally killed and was not shown any mercy by the convicts, so they should not be given any leniency. He noted that the nature of the crime stripped the accused of any grounds for clemency.
The conviction, finalized on July 13, detailed how Ankit Sharma was targeted by an unlawful assembly before his body was thrown into a drain. The court held that the group assembled with the clear intent of committing violence, arson, and murder, with full knowledge of the fatal outcomes their collective actions would produce.
Hussain faced conviction across multiple counts of the Indian Penal Code, including murder, kidnapping with intent to secretly confine, rioting with dangerous weapons, promoting enmity between groups, and violating public orders. Legal representatives and senior Delhi Police officers, including the Crime Branch’s Joint Commissioner and DCP, attended the final sentencing session.
