The initial probe into the brutal murder of Intelligence Bureau official Ankit Sharma has revealed that there was a strong possibility of the murder being a ‘targeted killing’ and not a random act of violence, reports Times of India.

According to the initial investigation, Ankit Sharma had returned from office at around 5 pm on February 25 and had stepped out with his friends. Ankit, along with his friend Kalu and a few others were on one side of a ‘pulia’ (small bridge) while heavy stone-pelting was on from the other side. Sharma was at the front facing the mob, said a source to Times of India.

The eyewitnesses have revealed that Sharma was hit by a stone and fell. They recounted that a group of men from the mob came from the other side and overpowered Sharma, who was then dragged away to the other side. “Curiously, they did not touch anyone else but him,” said the eyewitness.

Was intelligence official Ankit Sharma’s murder a ‘targeted killing’? Probe throws strong indicators that it was. He tripped over a stone and fell, men came from other side of Pulia and took him away. pic.twitter.com/8dG04ggXTN — Raj Shekhar Jha (@rajshekharTOI) March 5, 2020

Ankit Sharma was possibly taken to a confined location or a house as nobody saw him after that. The probe agencies believe that is where he was suspected to have been stripped and brutalised allegedly by Muslim mobs of AAP leader Tahir Hussain. His body was then dragged to the drain and dumped. The body, which had only undergarments on it, was taken out from the drain the next day.

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After analysing the prima facie sequence of events, the intelligence establishment is convinced that Sharma’s death appeared to be a murder with a motive. “The sequence indicates that the killers may have been trying to send across a message. This is bigger than what meets the eye,” a senior intelligence officer told TOI on Wednesday.

An investigator hinting at probing the angle of ‘targetted killing’ said, “The fact that Sharma was abducted and taken away and not killed or harmed at the spot by the mob had raised suspicion at first. The theory has only been strengthened as the sequence of events has become clearer. Vengeance is clearly visible by the condition of the body. Nobody is killed like this usually by a mob,” he added.

A senior police officer said that they were trying to identify the accused who dragged him away based on the details of their appearance as recalled by eyewitnesses. “Leads from technical surveillance in the area is awaited. We are also trying to trace a group of Bangladeshi criminals whose locations are known to be in the area around that time,” he added.

Amidst the violence that gripped several parts of the Northeast Delhi, the body of a young officer of the Intelligence Bureau, Ankit Sharma, was recovered today from a drain in Chand Bagh, one of the areas hit by the violence that had swept northeast Delhi. It is believed that he was beaten to death and later, the mob disposed of his body by dumping it in the drain.

Read: Ankit Sharma, stabbed hundreds of times with his intestines torn apart, fails to get sympathy from Left media, the harbingers of virtue

The autopsy report states that Ankit Sharma was stabbed hundreds of times, and his body has been mutilated beyond belief. He has stab wounds all over his body and not even a single portion of it was spared. He was stabbed for hours, four to six hours, by possibly as many as six individuals together.

Moreover, his intestines were ripped apart, says the autopsy report. Forensic doctors have reportedly said that they haven’t seen such nightmarish mutilation in their lives. The report says that the body had “multiple abrasion.. deep cut.. by sharp edge objects”.

The role of Aam Aadmi Party leader Tahir Hussain in the brutal murder of Intelligence Bureau (IB) employee Ankit Sharma and also inciting riots in the Delhi has now been under scanner.

Earlier, eyewitness accounts of Ankit Sharma’s death have come to the fore confirming the suspicions that Sharma was lynched to death by a Muslim mob. Eyewitnesses had stated that the young officer was dragged inside a house by an enraged mob before his dead body was found lying in the drain.

The Hindu residents of Moonga Nagar area of Chand Bagh have levelled serious allegations against AAP leader Mohammed Tahir Hussain. As per the residents, the Muslim mob operated from Hussain’s house to unleash their carnage. One of the residents of Moonga Nagar, who was an eyewitness to the murder of Ankit Sharma, stated that the IB sleuth was dragged inside the Hussain’s building by a frenzied mob from the gate of the house.