Ankit Sharma, a Security Assistant with IB, was found dead in a drain with multiple stab wounds
Intelligence Bureau officer Ankit Sharma, killed during the Delhi violence in February, was stabbed 51 times and was "specifically targeted" by a mob incited by suspended Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councilor Tahir Hussain, the police have said in a charge-sheet submitted in court today.
Ankit Sharma, 26, a Security Assistant with IB, was found dead in a drain with multiple stab wounds in the violence that swept through northeast Delhi in February-end.
Tahir Hussain, Halil Salman, Nazim and Kasim are listed among 10 accused in a 650-page charge-sheet. All are in jail. The testimonies of 96 witnesses are included in the document.
There was "deep-rooted conspiracy" behind the riots and the murder of Ankit Sharma and he was "specifically targeted" by a mob led by Tahir Hussain, the police told the court.
The charge-sheet says Tahir Hussain "led the mob from his house and also from a mosque near Chand Bagh Pulia on February 24, 25 and gave it a communal colour".
The main accused is Halil Salman, say the police, and a voice call on his phone helped the police piece together how Ankit Sharma was killed near his house in Chand Bagh area.
The charge-sheet says the suspended AAP leader incited rioters who attacked Ankit Sharma.
"A witness standing on a terrace had captured a video on his mobile phone, in which a group of persons are seen dumping the dead body in the drain. During post mortem, the doctors found 51 sharp and blunt injuries on Ankit's body," the chargesheet said.
The violence that erupted during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) left over 50 dead.
The police said Tahir Hussain got his pistol released from the police just before the riots started and couldn't give any satisfactory reason for doing so. He allegedly also bought 100 cartridges but only 64 live cartridges and 22 shells were recovered from him. He was unable to give a satisfactory answer, said the police, for the remaining 14 live cartridges and the used cartridges.
Police said that they recovered from Hussain's house several empty crates for glass bottles and crates of glass stuffed with pieces of cloth, which were allegedly used as Molotov cocktails. The police also recovered bricks, stones and three catapults from his house, the charge-sheet said.
