IB Officer's Murder: Life term for former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain, four others

New Delhi: A local court on Friday sentenced former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain and four other convicts to life imprisonment for the murder of Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer Ankit Sharma during the 2020 Delhi riots.

Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh turned down the prosecution's plea for the death penalty. The court said that while the barbarity of the crime was "nauseating and sickening", the prosecution was unable to prove that the convicts - Tahir Hussain, Nazir, Asim, Javed and Anas - were beyond reformation. The court also held that the case did not fall within the "rarest of rare" category warranting the death penalty. Hussain's family was also present in the courtroom.

In its order, the judge said, "I find myself unable to agree based on special public prosecutor 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 offences the convicts have been found guilty of, they must face the full force of the law."


It said the state had not brought anything on record to establish that any of the convicts has a violent disposition or a propensity for 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 the death penalty is of the last absorption," the judge said.

The court also held that the crime was committed when Delhi was witnessing communal riots and it shows utmost brutality. It said Sharma was sucked in by a murderous mob baying for blood.

"The savagery did not end there [with the murder of Sharma]. Instead, the body was strapped like an animal, as if the hatred had still not satiated. The body was then thrown into the nallah (drain). The barbarity with which this horrendous crime was committed is nauseating and sickening. Therefore, this is an aggravating circumstance of immense magnitude... The crime test, thus, tilts the case towards the 'rarest of rare' category," the court said.

Earlier, Delhi Police had sought death penalty for all five convicts, arguing that they fell to the "level of being animals" while relentlessly assaulting Sharma.

The prosecution submitted that Sharma was brutally killed and was shown no mercy by the convicts, and therefore deserved no leniency. On July 13, the court convicted Hussain and four others for Sharma's murder. Sharma was attacked by a mob during the riots, and his body was later recovered from a drain.