2020 Delhi riots: Life term for ex-AAP leader Tahir Hussain, court says case doesn’t warrant death penalty

A Delhi court on Friday sentenced former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain and four co-convicts to life imprisonment for the murder of Intelligence Bureau officer Ankit Sharma during the 2020 Delhi riots, saying the case did not fall within the “rarest of rare” category warranting the death penalty.

The judgement was pronounced by Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Singh in the presence of Hussain and others amid tight security.

The judge awarded the sentence after hearing arguments on the quantum of sentence and denied the state contention to award death penalty to the convicts, saying the prosecution was not able to prove that they were beyond reformation.

The courtroom was packed with lawyers and senior Delhi Police officials including Crime Branch’s Joint Commissioner and DCP.

The family of Hussain was so present in the court.

In its order, the court said, “I find myself unable to agree based on the SPP that the convicts are beyond reformation or have such a fiendish character that their continued existence, even in prison, will be a menace to society. For the other offenses the convicts have been found guilty of, they must face the full force of the law.”

It said that the state has not bought anything on record to establish that any of the convicts has any violent disposition or propensity to crime.

“The final test that law requires me to undertake before I conclude that this case invites capital punishment is whether the convicts are beyond redemption and there being no chance of reformation, it is now firmly established in our criminal jurisprudence that death penalty is of the last absorption,” the judge said.

On being asked about his sentence, Hussain said the high court will serve him justice.

Earlier, Delhi Police had sought death penalty for all the five accused, saying they fell to the “level of being animals” while relentlessly assaulting Sharma.

Special public prosecutor Madhukar Pandey had submitted that Sharma was brutally killed and was not shown any mercy by the convicts, so they should not be given any leniency.

Those who are asking for mercy today should have shown mercy themselves. No mercy was shown from anyone’s side. No one even took Ankit to the hospital. They are asking for mercy after committing such a brutal murder, Pandey had said.

On July 13, the court convicted Hussain and four others for the murder of Sharma, who was attacked by a mob during the riots. His body was later found in a drain.

In its verdict, the court held that Hussain was a member of a heavily armed mob that assembled with animus against Hindus to commit rioting, arson and loot, and murdered Sharma in a savage and relentless assault.

The court said the prosecution had proved that the members of the unlawful assembly knew that, in pursuing their common object, death could (be the) result and someone could be killed.

Hussain was convicted under IPC sections 302 (murder), 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine a person), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting armed with a deadly weapon), 153A (promoting enmity) and 188 (disobedience to an order duly promulgated by a public servant), read with Section 149 (unlawful assembly).