Ankit Sharma Case: Court Pronounces Charges Against Ex-AAP Leader Tahir Hussain

Hussain is one of the accused in the death of Ankit Sharma amid the 2020 Delhi riots.

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Former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Councillor Tahir Hussain and ten others face murder charges in the case of an Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer's death amid the 2020 Delhi riots.

Details: Delhi's Karkardooma Court laid down the charges on Thursday, 23 March, according to a LiveLaw report.

• The names of the other accused are Haseen, Nazim, Kasim, Sameer Khan, Anas, Firoz, Javed, Gulfam, Shoaib Alam and Muntajim

• Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala was presiding over the matter

The Charges

Hussain and the other accused have reportedly been charged under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) such as:

• Section 147 – Punishment for rioting

• Section 148 – Rioting, armed with deadly weapon

• Section 153A – Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony

• Section 302 – Punishment for murder

• Section 365 – Kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person

• Section 120B – Punishment of criminal conspiracy

• Section 149 – Every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence commit­ted in prosecution of common object

• Section 188 – Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant

Two of the accused face charges under the Arms Act while some others have been charged under Sections 505, 109, 114, and 174A of the IPC.

In the courtroom: The mob fired gunshots, pelted stones, and hurled petrol bombs towards Hindus and their houses, the court reportedly observed on Thursday.

Of note: Going over the witnesses' statements, the court further observed that the presence of all the accused persons in the mob was well reflected.

"Tahir was continuously acting in a manner of supervising and motivating this mob. All these things were done to target Hindus. Every member of the mob assembled there participated in achieving the objective of targeting Hindus. Such conducts of the members of this mob, show that they were acting out of meeting of their mind and with a clear-cut objective in mind, to kill and harm Hindus. Thus, a criminal conspiracy to indulge into riot and to kill Hindus and harm properties of Hindus, is well reflected from the evidence on the record."

The court was quoted as saying by LiveLaw

Ankit Sharma was a 26-year-old IB officer who died during the riots in the capital.

• His body was found in a drain in northeast Delhi’s Chand Bagh area on 26 February 2020

• Witnesses, according to the Delhi Police, said that Ankit had tried to mediate between two mobs

(With inputs from LiveLaw.)