![\"Intelligence](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-132404103,imgsize-88537,width-400,height-225,resizemode-75\/a-special-court-convicted-tahir-hussain-and-four-others-for-the-brutal-murder-of-ib-officer-ankit-sharma-r.jpg\" "\\"A")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nNEW DELHI: In its order convicting former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain<\/a> and four others, the special riots court has underlined the \u201cbrutality\u201d with which Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer Ankit Sharma<\/a> was \u201csurrounded and dragged by a murderously armed mob towards Chand Bagh Pulia\u201d before being killed \u201cin a savage and relentless assault\u201d on Feb 25, 2020.Additional sessions judge Parveen Kumar Singh observed that an \u201cunlawful assembly\u201d had gathered \u201cwith animus against Hindus\u201d.\u201cAs has already been found that this assembly was heavily armed with deadly weapons, it had a considerable strength of hundreds of people and had a shared object of arson, vandalism, rioting, looting and causing damage to property and person of the members of the rival community,\u201d the court noted, while holding Hussain and the four others guilty.However, the court also flagged several shortcomings in police investigation, noting that police witnesses made \u201cconsiderable improvements\u201d in their statements, rendering them \u201cunreliable\u201d.Referring to three of the accused, Sameer, Nazim and Kasim \u2014 it acquitted Sameer \u2014 the court pointed to the \u201cserendipitous\u201d discovery of witnesses as they turned up every time police took the three to the crime spot.\u201cWhen it comes to believing that by virtue of coincidence these witnesses would be near the scene of crime on the same days and at the exact same time when the investigating officer (IO) would bring the three accused for spot identification, I find it too serendipitous,\u201d the judge noted.He also criticised the failure of the IO to pursue a lead where DNA from blood found on a knife and clothes recovered from Nazeem and one Haseen alias Mullaji \u2014 he was acquitted \u2014 wasn\u2019t that of the IB officer, but of a second possible victim.Calling it a clear connection between Nazeem and Haseen, the judge indicated police had not done enough to rule out \u201cthe possibility of another crime.\u201dIn its over 300 page order, the court also referred to Sharma\u2019s post-mortem report to note that the \u201cnumber of injuries is reflective of the manner and the brutality inflicted upon the deceased,\u201d adding that to \u201cany layman\u201d, they clearly indicated murder.Sharma was killed between 4 pm and 5.30 pm on the main Karawal Nagar Road near Chand Bagh Pulia. The court observed that his body was thrown into a drain beneath the bridge.Although the court was forced to acquit all the accused on the charge of criminal conspiracy due to failure of the prosecution to table conclusive evidence, the judge said, \u201cthe fact that CCTV cameras around the area had either been damaged or had been covered or turned away points towards pre-planning, and thus the fact, that a conspiracy might have been afoot\u201d.It noted, \u201cHowever, no evidence had been led by the State to prove when, where and how this conspiracy was hatched and who all were the conspirators… therefore, there is no evidence against accused Tahir Hussain and for that matter, against any of the accused which can lead to their conviction under Section 120B of IPC\u201d.On the issue of common liability, the court reaffirmed the principle of shared criminal responsibility, observing that \u201cSection 149 of IPC fastens a vicarious criminal liability on every member of an unlawful assembly<\/a> for any offence which is committed in prosecution of the common object of such an assembly\u201d.It rejected the defence\u2019s argument that the complaint of Ravinder Sharma, the deceased\u2019s father, had been altered merely to introduce Hussain\u2019s name \u201cto satisfy public sentiment\u201d.Noting that Ravinder had accompanied police to Hussain\u2019s residence while searching for his missing son, the judge said this \u201cclearly establishes that even before the recovery of the dead body, suspicion had already arisen regarding the involvement of Hussain\u201d.In his earlier judgments in connection with the 2020 riots, ASJ Singh had on several occasions castigated the investigation carried out by police, resulting in the court acquitting a number of accused.In an unrelated case regarding terror funding, the judge had convicted Kashmiri separatist Yasin Malik.<\/div>\n