NEW DELHI: A city court on Saturday held that expelled AAP leader Tahir Hussain had allowed a mob to use his building as a vantage point to pelt stones at people and properties during the February 2020 northeast Delhi riots, convicting him of abetment to rioting.
This is the second conviction of Hussain in a case related to the riots. On July 31, another city court had sentenced the former AAP councillor and four co-convicts to life imprisonment for the murder of Intelligence Bureau officer Ankit Sharma.
Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh had then convicted Hussain under Section 147 (rioting) read with Section 109 (abetment) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in the case registered at Dayalpur police station.
He was acquitted of the serious charges, including Sections 148 (rioting while armed with a deadly weapon), 380 (stealing from a residential house), 427 (mischief causing damage), 435, 436 (mischief by fire or explosive) and 450 (trespass to commit an offence punishable with life imprisonment) of the IPC, read with Section 109.
In its 53-page judgement, the court said the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt that on February 24, 2020, between 2 pm and 3 pm, a mob gathered on the terrace of Hussain’s house on Main Karawal Nagar Road and used the height to pelt stones at passers-by and nearby properties.
“Hussain allowed the mob to use his building as a vantage point from which it committed a riot and pelted stones upon the public and properties,” the court said. It relied on the testimonies of four public witnesses, who deposed that a large crowd had gathered outside Hussain’s house and a mob on its terrace was pelting stones. None of them placed Hussain among the rioters, which the court said indicated they bore no malice or bias against him.
The court also noted that when the allegations were put to Hussain in his statement, he did not deny that a rioting mob was present on his terrace.
Hussain claimed that the mob had forcibly entered his house and he could not stop it. He also said he had made several calls to the police control room (PCR) to stop the matter and he was unaware of the stone pelting from his terrace.
Also in court
Defamation case on AAP city chief junked
A city court dismissed a criminal defamation complaint filed by minister Parvesh Verma against AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj on Saturday. Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Neha Mittal declined to take cognisance of the alleged offence under the BNS, finding insufficient grounds to proceed. She said Bharadwaj’s posts and videos were aimed at criticising the government, not defaming anyone, and merely reiterated information already available.
