New Delhi (Gurpreet Singh): A Delhi court on Friday sentenced former Aam Aadmi Party councillor Tahir Hussain and four co-convicts to life imprisonment for the murder of Intelligence Bureau officer Ankit Sharma during the 2020 Delhi riots. Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Singh pronounced the judgement at Karkardooma Court in the physical presence of the convicts amid heavy security, concluding that while the crime was severe, the case did not fall into the “rarest of rare” category that warrants the death penalty. The court stated that the prosecution had failed to establish that the convicts were beyond reformation or possessed a propensity to crime that made them an enduring menace to society, emphasizing that capital punishment remains a measure of last resort in criminal jurisprudence.
The sentencing followed intense arguments from the state, which had sought the death penalty for all five convicts by describing the assault as exceptionally brutal and cold-blooded. Special Public Prosecutor Madhukar Pandey argued that Sharma was subjected to a savage attack resulting in fifty-one injuries before his body was dumped in a drain, maintaining that the perpetrators showed no mercy and deserved no leniency. Conversely, the court noted that no material was placed on record to establish an irredeemable violent disposition or previous criminal record for any of the convicts. Following the pronouncement, Hussain stated that he would seek justice through an appeal before the Delhi High Court.
The conviction stems from the February 2020 northeast Delhi riots, during which Sharma was abducted, brutally assaulted, and killed by an armed mob. In its verdict delivered earlier in July, the court held that Hussain was part of an unlawful assembly assembled with hostility to commit rioting, arson, and targeted violence. Hussain was convicted under multiple provisions of the Indian Penal Code, including offences pertaining to murder, kidnapping, rioting, and promoting enmity between religious groups.
