'He Never Had Communal Sentiments': Son of Tahir Hussain, Jailed for Delhi Riots

Delhi High Court on 23 September issued a notice on a petition for quashing criminal proceedings against Hussain.

Tahir Hussain was booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for allegedly masterminding the riots that took place in northeast Delhi in February 2020.

(Photo: Aroop Mishra/Aishwarya S Iyer/The Quint)

“Dad never had communal sentiments,” said Shariq, son of former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain, who is in jail under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for allegedly masterminding the Delhi Riots of February 2020, Mid-Day reported.

The Delhi High Court on Friday, 23 September, issued a notice on a petition for quashing criminal proceedings against Hussain, granting the counsel for the respondents time to file their reply, and directed the listing of the matter along with three other similar petitions on 25 January 2023, reported The Indian Express.

There are a dozen cases filed against Hussain, including one by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), while many international and national rights groups continue to demand his release.

‘My Daughter Wakes Up at Odd Hours of Night, Asking for Her Father’

"My second son, in Standard XII, no longer orders food from outside; my daughter, in Standard VIII, wakes up at odd hours of night, asking for her father. He has lost so much weight in tension," Hussain's wife Sama told Mid-Day, while pointing to her elder son Shariq.

Hussain reportedly seems to have slipped into depression. According to his family, during his daily calls, he talked about being accused of a crime that he did not commit and a crime that he said he was incapable of even conceiving.

The police action and media trials have also been detrimental to Hussain's business.

“Dad never had communal sentiments,” Hussain's son Shariq said.

He further asked that if his father were communal-minded, would he have resided on the Hindu side of the road that separates it from Muslim quarters at Khajuri Khas, whether 60 percent of his employees would be Hindus or if he would have hosted over 1,000 guests every Holi and Diwali.

The Case

A Delhi court had previously in May, ordered framing of charges of rioting and criminal conspiracy against Hussain and five others accused in the 2020 northeast Delhi riots case.

The court directed that along with charges under Section 120 (criminal conspiracy) and 147 (rioting) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), charges under Sections 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (member of unlawful assembly), 427 (mischief causing damage), 435 (mischief causing fire), 436 (mischief by fire with intent to destroy house, etc) and 395 (dacoity) be framed against Hussain.

The six men, including Hussain, were accused of rioting in Khajuri Khas area on 25 February 2020, where the unlawful assembly, allegedly led by Tahir Hussain had allegedly looted, vandalised and torched a godown owned by a Hindu man.

While the defence had argued that no incriminating evidence was retrieved from Hussain's building, the court noted in its order:

"It was found during the course of the investigation that the above building of accused Tahir Hussain had been used by the rioters/miscreants including the accused herein for brick bating, stone pelting, pelting of petrol bombs, acid bombs, etc."

Hussain was suspended from the primary membership of AAP after he was charged with murder and arson in connection with the death of Ankit Sharma, an Intelligence Bureau (IB) employee found dead northeast Delhi during the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

(With inputs from Mid-Day, Indian Express, and Maktoob Media.)