Barbarity is nauseatingly sickening: Court on IB officer's murder in Delhi riots
A Delhi court on Friday refused to award the death penalty to former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain and other convicts in the 2020 murder of
A Delhi court on Friday refused to award the death penalty to former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain and other convicts in the 2020 murder of Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma, holding that although the killing qualified as a "rarest of rare" crime because of its extreme brutality, the convicts could not be considered beyond reformation. Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Singh pronounced the sentence in the presence of Hussain and the other convicts amid tight security. The courtroom was packed with lawyers and senior Delhi Police officials, including the Crime Branch's Joint Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Police. Hussain's family members were also present in the courtroom. The court held that the prosecution failed to establish that the convicts were beyond reformation, a requirement for imposing capital punishment. COURT DESCRIBES MURDER AS 'NAUSEATINGLY SICKENING' In its sentencing order, the court described the murder as "nauseatingly sickening" and said it was committed with "the utmost brutality" during the communal violence that erupted following protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the Register of Citizens (NRC). "The victim was sucked in by the murderous mob, baying for blood, solely on account of his religion," the court said. It observed that the assault was "so fierce, unrelenting, and from such close quarters" that Sharma's body did not immediately collapse after he was killed. The court further said the brutality continued even after Sharma's death. "The savagery, however, did not end there. The body of the victim was strapped like an animal and dragged to the Chand Bagh Pulia. As if the hatred had still not been satiated, the dead body was thereafter thrown into the nala," the order said. Calling the murder "horrendous", the court observed that "the barbarity with which this horrendous murder was committed is nauseatingly sickening." It held that the extreme brutality constituted "an aggravating circumstance of immense magnitude" and said the crime test tilted the case towards the category of the "rarest of rare" cases.
WHY THE COURT REJECTED THE DEATH PENALTY Despite its observations on the brutality of the crime, the court declined to impose capital punishment. "I am unable to agree with the Special Public Prosecutor that the convicts are beyond reformation, or have such fiendish character that their continued existence, even in prison, will be a menace to society," the court said. The judge added that the state failed to place any material on record to establish that any of the convicts had a violent disposition or a propensity to commit crimes. "The final test that law requires me to undertake before I conclude that this case invites capital punishment is whether the convicts are beyond redemption and there being no chance of reformation. It is now firmly established in our criminal jurisprudence that death penalty is of the last resort," the judge observed. The court also noted that no specific act during the commission of the murder had been attributed to or proved against any individual convict. While acknowledging that the law permits the death penalty even where a murder conviction rests on unlawful assembly under Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the court said a higher threshold must be met before awarding capital punishment. "It is because these crimes were committed in complete disdain for the law and utter disregard for life and property," the court said, adding that something more than mere membership of an unlawful assembly was required before "a life is ordered to be extinguished by a judicial decree." The court, however, said the convicts would face the full force of the law for the other offences for which they had been found guilty. "I find myself unable to agree based on the SPP that the convicts are beyond reformation or have such a fiendish character that their continued existence, even in prison, will be a menace to society.
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