"Neither Ankit Sharma's Family Nor Tahir Hussain Got Justice": Defence Lawyer

New Delhi: The judgement in the Ankit Sharma case was not a victory for either side, Special Public Prosecutor Madhukar Pandey said on Monday after a court convicted former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain and four others in the sensational killing of the Intelligence Bureau officer during the 2020 northeast Delhi riots.

"In such cases, everyone loses," Pandey said, adding the victim's family had suffered, and now the family of the convicted accused would also suffer.

It was society that had lost and the verdict was not a victory for either side, he said.

Hussain's counsel Tara Narula also said that justice was not meted out to "Ankit Sharma or his family and certainly not to Tahir Hussain".

"We are of course disappointed, but I am also confident that we ran a very good trial. We did break the witnesses and I don't think justice has been served today, not to Ankit Sharma or his family and certainly not to Tahir Hussain," Narula told PTI, adding they will wait for the detailed judgement.

"We will of course be taking our chances in appeal as well," she said.

The counsel said the six who have been acquitted "had a very good case and that was even recognised by the trial court".

She said Hussain is disappointed. "He wants to know why this injustice has been meted on him but we don't have answers for him like we don't have answers for the public as yet because we haven't seen the judgment," the counsel said.

Hussain broke down in court as Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Singh pronounced him guilty, while his counsel tried to console him.

He was an AAP councillor at the time of the incident but was later suspended by the party when his name came up in the case.

The court convicted five accused and acquitted six others.

The court convicted Hussain under IPC sections 302 (murder), 153A (promoting enmity), 149 (rioting), 355 (assault on criminal force and murder) read with 149, 148 (rioting with deadly weapon), 147 (punishment for rioting).

However, Hussain was acquitted of IPC Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 109 (punishment for abetment) read with 149.

It also convicted Nazim, Qasim, Javed, Anas under the same charges except murder.

The court acquitted Haseen alias Mullaji alias Salman, Firoz, Gulfam, Soyab, Sameer Khan, Muntajim alias Musa in the case.

The judge orally pronounced the verdict in the presence of all the accused and directed the police to take into custody Anas and Javed, who were out on bail.

The case pertains to an FIR registered at Dayalpur police station on the complaint of Ravinder Kumar, father of Ankit Sharma.

According to the complaint, Sharma, who was posted with the Intelligence Bureau, had returned home from office on February 25, 2020, before stepping out again.

When he did not return for a long time, his family began searching for him, only to be informed by locals that his son had been killed and his body thrown into the Khajuri Khas drain near a mosque in the Chand Bagh pulia area. Sharma's body was subsequently recovered from the drain.

In his complaint, Kumar alleged that his son was murdered by Hussain and others. It said they had allegedly assembled at Hussain's office, and Ankit's body was disposed of after the murder.