Cops: Hussain was in NE Delhi during IB staffer’s murder
NEW DELHI: Suspended Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain — who was arrested on Thursday — was present in Chand Bagh and Mustafabad when Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma was killed during the violence in north-east Delhi on February 25, officers probing the case said.
They said enquiry so far has revealed that the IB staffer was killed while rescuing some girls and women who were stuck in Chand Bagh during the riots.
On Friday, a city court sent Hussain to seven-day police custody after the police produced him before a duty magistrate amid tight security and said that his custodial interrogation was required to unearth a larger conspiracy. Neither the media nor any lawyer, other than those connected with the case, were allowed inside the courtroom.
A total of 731 cases, including 48 of Arms act, had been registered till Friday in connection to last week’s violence that has left at least 53 people dead and more than 400 injured.
Officials, who asked not to be identified, said that Hussain’s presence in Chand Bagh and Mustafabad areas has been corroborated by call records, location of his cellphone and the statements of people who claimed to have seen him in the neighbourhood on the day Sharma was killed.
They, however, said that none of these people were an eyewitness to murder or had seen Hussain present at the Chand Bagh puliya (culvert), which the investigators have learnt was the spot where Sharma was stabbed and killed. Hussain is also being interrogated to ascertain how and why he mobilised people at his Chand Bagh house and stocked sticks, catapults, stones, petrol bombs (Molotov cocktails) on the building’s terrace and basement, another officer said. Two more cases – of attempt to murder and rioting – registered at Dayalpur and Khajoori Khas police stations have the mention of alleged firing, pelting of petrol bombs and stone from Hussain’s house.
Investigators said that they would take Hussain to Chand Bagh, Mustafabad and Zakir Nagar to identify the buildings where he had been hiding.