13 July,2026 07:33 PM IST | New Delhi | mid-day online correspondent
Former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain. FILE PIC
A Delhi court on Monday convicted former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain and four others in the murder case of Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer Ankit Sharma, who was killed during the 2020 northeast Delhi riots.
Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Singh pronounced the verdict in a case involving 11 accused, convicting five of them, including Hussain. The court held Hussain guilty under charges related to promoting enmity between groups, rioting, assault, use of criminal force, and murder.
The case is based on a first information report (FIR) registered at Dayalpur Police Station on the complaint Sharma's father, Ravinder Kumar.
According to the complaint, Sharma, who was posted with the IB, returned home from work on February 25, 2020, before stepping out again later in the day. When he did not return, his family began searching for him. They were subsequently informed by local residents that he had allegedly been killed and that his body had been thrown into the Khajuri Khas drain near a mosque in the Chand Bagh Pulia area of northeast Delhi.
His body was later recovered from the drain.
In his complaint, Ravinder Kumar alleged that his son was murdered by Hussain, then an AAP councillor, along with others. He claimed that the accused had assembled at Hussain's office before the murder and that Sharma's body was disposed of after the crime.
AAP suspended Hussain after his name surfaced in the case.
On March 24, 2023, a Delhi court framed charges against Hussain and 10 other accused. The co-accused include Haseen alias Mullaji alias Salman, Nazim, Kasim, Sameer Khan, Anas, Firoz, Javed, Gulfam, Shoaib Alam alias Bobby, and Muntajim alias Musa.
The accused were charged under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code dealing with rioting, rioting while armed with deadly weapons, promoting enmity between groups, murder, and criminal conspiracy. Hussain also faced additional charges of abetment and making statements conducive to public mischief.
The incident occurred during the communal violence that broke out in northeast Delhi in February 2020 amid protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). The riots witnessed widespread incidents of stone-pelting, arson and vandalism, leaving 53 people dead and scores of others injured.
The Ankit Sharma murder case emerged as one of the most high-profile cases arising out of the 2020 riots.
(With PTI inputs)
