Delhi HC seeks police response to Tahir Hussain’s bail plea

The Delhi high court on Monday sought the response of the Delhi Police to a bail plea filed by former councillor Tahir Hussain in a 2020 murder case connected to the northeast Delhi riots.

Hussain is one of the accused in the murder case of Intelligence Bureau (IB) staffer Ankit Sharma during the riots. At the time of the incident, he was an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor.

A bench of justice Neena Bansal Krishna issued notice to the Delhi Police and fixed July 17 as the next date of hearing. The Delhi Police, represented by advocate Dhruv Pande, accepted notice on behalf of the police.

The former councillor approached the Delhi high court against a city court order dated March 12, rejecting his bail. In its 10-page order, a bench of judge Pulastya Pramachala opined that the failure of three public witnesses to identify Hussain did not wash away or mellow down the evidence of other witnesses, including public witnesses.

“Thus, I am not convinced with the plea of the applicant that there is such a material change in the circumstances, so as to favour the applicant and to mellow down the evidence against him...Hence, application is rejected,” judge Pramachala noted in his order.

Hussain’s petition in the high court painted a picture that the trial court disregarded the aspect of eight co-accused being released on bail and failed to consider the account of eyewitnesses who have absolved him from the prosecution’s allegations. It went on to add that he has already spent almost five years in jail, and the three public witnesses categorically exonerated him stating that they did not see Hussain at the relevant time, even as the father of the deceased — the complainant on whose basis the FIR was filed — had failed to identify him. The petition further said that the prosecution had examined all public witnesses in the case.

Sharma’s body was found in a drain near his home in northeast Delhi’s Chand Bagh on February 26, 2020, a day after he had gone missing after the riots broke out.

Following a probe, the police charged Hussain under sections of murder, rioting, criminal conspiracy, dacoity, promoting religious enmity and the Arms Act. A charge sheet was filed in June 2020 and in March 2023, a city court framed charges against Hussain and 10 other people.