Delhi violence: Booked for IB man’s murder, Tahir Hussain says he’s being framed

NEW DELHI: AAP councillor Tahir Hussain and his aides were on Thursday booked in the case of murder of Intelligence Bureau (IB) official Ankit Sharma. Though he had not been arrested till late on Thursday, the police raided his house and sealed his factory in northeast Delhi. His call records and mobile activity are being scanned to ascertain the identity of the people he was in touch with.
Hussain has denied the allegation and claimed he is being framed.AAP has suspended him from the party’s primary membership and will wait for the outcome of the police probe, said sources. CM Arvind Kejriwal has said whoever is found guilty, irrespective of political affiliations, should be punished. The initial autopsy suggests over 200 injuries, including deep stab wounds, on Sharma’s body.

Was trying to stop rioters: Tahir
The initial autopsy of IB official Ankit Sharma suggests over 200 injuries, including deep stab wounds, on Sharma’s body, apart from blunt force impact (assault), indicating that he was tortured and then killed before his mutilated body was dumped in the drain.
The SIT is studying the entire sequence of events, from the point where the family has alleged that he was kidnapped along with two others on Tuesday evening. While Sharma’s body was found in a drain near his house, two bodies were fished out together from a drain in a nearby area on Thursday. The police are trying to figure out if these deaths are connected.
The police said they were studying all videos which have been submitted to them showing bottle bombs and heavy stone-pelting from a building owned by Hussain. In videos shot by local residents, over a hundred people can be seen gathered on the terrace of the building and engaging in violence. The building has been searched and some seizures made. A stash of Molotov cocktails, acid pouches, stones and a slingshot was recovered from his house on Thursday.
Speaking in a video message which he claimed to have recorded on the day of the incident on the terrace of his Mustafabad house, Hussain claimed that he had informed the area SHO and senior police officers about the violence in his neighbourhood. The police are probing if the video is morphed and edited as the background, they said, keeps changing. “We are probing when the video was shot and from which device,” said a senior police officer.
Hussain has claimed that the video in which he was seen on the terrace of his house wearing a red half-sleeve sweater, along with a group of youth, was shot on February 25 when he was trying to stop the youths from stone-pelting. He claimed that the men had entered his house after he and his family had been evacuated by the police the previous day and he had to return to dissuade them.
“A mob of 100-150 had tried to break into my house and go up to the terrace on February 24 after which I had called the police. At first, the area SHO and ACP didn’t respond, but later a large force had arrived and rescued my family members around 8pm. The cops also checked my house and there was nothing on the terrace then,” he said. He claimed that his house was taken over by miscreants when he left that night.
“The building stayed under the supervision of the police for the entire day and night, but for some reason, the force was removed and the rioters got on top of the building. I had even informed the police that I was afraid this might happen,” he said.
Explaining why he was seen on the terrace the next day, he claimed he had learnt that the miscreants had broken into his house and had gone to the terrace and he had to return. He said senior party leaders were informed about it as well. “I didn’t have any other clothes with me when I left home and, hence, I was wearing the same red sweater seen in the video for the past two days,” he claimed.
“Whatever has happened is very wrong and I am very sad. You must know that I am a truthful and honest Muslim and I have always worked for Hindu-Muslim brotherhood and will continue to do so. Rumours are being spread about me. I can never harm anybody. I had to escape with my family, fearing for our lives. I want to appeal to all of you to please have faith in me and trust me. I promise in the name of my children that I have not done this kind of thing,” he claimed in the video statement.