Delhi Court Sentences Former AAP Councillor Tahir Hussain, Others To Life in IB Official Ankit Sharma Murder Case

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday sentenced former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain and co-accused to life imprisonment in the murder of Intelligence Bureau official Ankit Sharma during the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots.

The Karkardooma Court convicted the accused under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code for murder, along with charges of rioting, rioting with a deadly weapon, and kidnapping. The court also imposed a fine of ₹5 lakh on Hussain.

Hussain, who maintained his innocence, said after the verdict: “I will get justice from the High Court.”

His counsel, advocate Tara Narula, noted that the court observed the offence was heinous but that the prosecution had not established the convicts were beyond reform or redemption. She emphasised that the case rested on vicarious liability under Section 149 of the IPC (unlawful assembly), with no specific role in Sharma’s murder attributed to Hussain or the other convicts.

“As far as our client is concerned, we are convinced of his innocence and will be taking the case to the High Court and presenting our arguments there soon,” Narula said.

Advocate Abdul Gaffar Khan, representing other accused in the matter, said his clients would also appeal. “We will certainly file an appeal; we intend to do so within a week,” he said.

Speaking to ANI over the phone, Ankit Sharma's brother, Ankur Sharma, said, “Our demand was that the court should treat this case as a 'rarest of rare' case, and that the guilty should receive the harshest possible punishment. They should have been given the death penalty; that is what we wanted. As the case moves to the Delhi High Court or the Supreme Court, we want my brother to get justice there as well, and the guilty should receive the severest punishment. An example should be set so that such an incident never happens to anyone else.”

Union Minister and Delhi BJP president Harsh Malhotra criticised the AAP’s earlier stance on Hussain, alleging that party leaders, including Arvind Kejriwal, continued to support him even after his arrest. Malhotra described AAP leaders as “anarchists” and claimed the people of Delhi had already rejected the party, predicting a similar outcome in Punjab.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has distanced itself from Hussain, citing his expulsion from the party following the case.

AAP Chief National Spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said, “The very day the case was registered against him, Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party expelled him from the party. There is no room for criminal activities in our party, and we never offer any kind of protection.”

Kakkar has accused the BJP of providing protection to those involved in serious crimes.

Ankit Sharma was killed amid the communal violence that erupted in Northeast Delhi in February 2020.

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