The Special cell of Delhi police has booked the suspended Aam Aadmi Party leader and councillor Tahir Hussain under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in connection with communal violence in Northeast Delhi.

Aam Aadmi Party councillor Tahir Hussain is accused in the brutal murder of Intelligence Bureau (IB) employee Ankit Sharma and also inciting riots in the Delhi in February this year.

The dead body of an Intelligence Bureau constable was recovered from a drain in North East Delhi amidst anti-Hindu riots in the national capital. Ankit Sharma, who lived in Chand Bagh, was returning home on Tuesday evening when he was allegedly attacked by a violent mob on the Chand Bagh bridge and beaten to death. The Muslim mob had thrown his body into a drain.

Earlier Tahir Hussain was booked under sections 365 (kidnapping), 302 (murder), 201 (disappearance of evidence or giving false information) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in the case of the alleged murder of the IB official. He was arrested on 5 March by Delhi police after remaining absconding for several days. He was arrested after he had gone to a Delhi court to surrender, and the court had rejected the plea saying that the matter was not in its jurisdiction.

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On February 27, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had suspended Councillor Tahir Hussain from the primary membership of the party after he was named in the murder FIR. He is in judicial custody at present.

Delhi police has also arrested former Congress Councillor Ishrat Jahan and activist Khalid Saifi in the case.

Umar Khalid booked under UAPA

Yesterday, JNU student leader Umar Khalid was booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in a case related to the anti-Hindu riots in Delhi. Two other leaders from the Jamia Coordination Committee, Meeran Haider and Safoora Zargar, were booked under the same Act. The two are now in judicial custody after they were arrested last week. The Police has claimed in the FIR that the communal violence was a “premeditated conspiracy” by Khalid and others.

The ‘activists’ have also been booked on charges of sedition, murder, attempt to murder, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and rioting. The FIR says that Umar Khalid had delivered provocative speeches at two different locations and appealed to citizens to hit the streets and block roads during the visit by US President Donald Trump to spread propaganda at the international level about minorities being attacked in India. The FIR also claimed that in this conspiracy, firearms, petrol bombs, acid bottles and stones were collected at numerous homes.