The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought a response from the Delhi Police in a regular bail plea moved by former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain in a murder case of an Intelligence Bureau (IB) staffer during the 2020 North East Delhi riots.
Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta issued a notice to the Delhi Police and posted the matter for consideration on January 15, 2025.
Hussain who was arrested on March 16, 2020 over the alleged killing Ankit Sharma during the 2020 North East Delhi riots is seeking bail on grounds of long period of incarceration and said that of the 20 prosecution witnesses examined so far by the trial court, most of the eyewitnesses have not supported the prosecution case.
Hussain has also highlighted that the co-accused people in the case have been granted bail by the High Court.
IB security assistant Sharma is among the 53 people killed in the communal riots that hit the district. The body of Sharma, 25, was recovered from a drain in Khajuri Khas near Chand Bagh. The post-mortem report stated that there were 51 injury marks caused by sharp-edged weapons and blunt force. Sharma’s father, in his complaint lodged at Dayalpur police station, had claimed that he had strong suspicion that his son was killed under the orders of Hussain.
Sharma’s father had informed the police on February 26, 2020, that his son, who had stepped out of the house on February 25 evening to see what was happening in his trouble-torn locality hit by the riots, did not return home. The AAP had suspended Hussain after he was named as an accused in the case.
The trial court framed charges against Hussain and 10 others in March last year under Indian Penal Code sections 147 (punishment for rioting); 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon); 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc); 302 (punishment for murder); 365 (kidnapping or abduction with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person); 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy); 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object); 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant); and 153A (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot).
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