Delhi High Court seeks police stand on appeals by two convicts

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought the stand of the city police on appeals by two convicts in the murder case of Intelligence officer Ankit Sharma, who was attacked by a mob and his body dumped in a drain during the 2020 northeast Delhi riots.

A bench of Justices Prathiba M Singh and Vikas Mahajan admitted the appeals by Nazim and Kasim and issued notice to the prosecution.

The court also issued notice on the convicts’ plea seeking suspension of sentence of life imprisonment and listed the cases for hearing on December 2.

The counsel appearing for the two appellants said their conviction by the trial court cannot be sustained.

He submitted that a test identification parade was not conducted in this case and the testimony of the witness was not corroborated by any independent material. “Admit. Issue notice,” the bench said.

Advocate Rajat Nair, appearing for the prosecution, submitted that the State will also prefer an appeal against the trial court’s decision as it acquitted six accused persons. On July 31, the trial court convicted former AAP councillor Tahir 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) in the case.

The present appellants and two others were also convicted under the same charges except murder. On July 31, the trial court sentenced Hussain and four co-convicts to life imprisonment. The prosecution had vehemently sought death penalty for all the five accused, saying they fell to the “level of being animals” while relentlessly assaulting Sharma. The case pertains to an FIR registered at Dayalpur police station on the complaint of Ravinder Kumar, father of Ankit Sharma.