New Delhi: Delhi Police has told the Delhi High Court that it will appeal against the acquittal of six Muslim men in the murder case of Intelligence Bureau officer Ankit Sharma, who was killed during the 2020 Delhi violence.
The submission was made before a Bench of Justices Prathiba M Singh and Vikas Mahajan, which was hearing an appeal filed by two convicts, Nazim and Kasim, against their own convictions in the same case.
Special Counsel for Delhi Police Rajat Nair told the court: “State is also preferring an appeal. There are six accused who have been acquitted. We are in process.”
The court recorded the submission and issued notice to Delhi Police on the appeal filed by Nazim and Kasim. The matter is listed for consideration on December 2.
On July 13, a trial court convicted former Aam Aadmi Party councillor Tahir Hussain and four others for the murder of Ankit Sharma. Hussain was convicted under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code, covering offences including disobedience of a public servant’s order, promoting enmity between groups, rioting, unlawful assembly, kidnapping and murder. Nazim, Kasim, Javed and Anas were also convicted under the same provisions, while six other accused were acquitted.
The case originated from a complaint filed by Ankit Sharma’s father, Ravinder Kumar, on February 26, 2020. He alleged that anti-CAA and pro-CAA protesters had been demonstrating for two to three days near Chand Bagh Pulia on Main Karawal Nagar Road. He further alleged that Hussain, then a municipal councillor with an office nearby, had gathered people there and that stones and petrol bombs were thrown and shots were fired from the rooftop.
Ravinder stated that his son had left home on February 25, 2020, to purchase household goods and did not return. After a missing-person complaint, locals informed him that a body had been thrown into the Khajuri Khas nala. Ankit Sharma’s body was subsequently recovered from the drain near Chand Bagh Pulia.
The 2020 Delhi violence resulted in at least 53 deaths, mostly Muslims, and left hundreds injured during protests against India’s Citizenship Amendment Act. Courts have acquitted several Hindutva men in related cases, frequently citing insufficient evidence, contradictory witness statements, investigative lapses or witnesses turning hostile. At the same time, several Muslim activists and anti-CAA protesters remain accused or incarcerated, with some facing charges under anti-terror laws. Critics have argued that such prosecutions amount to the criminalisation of dissent.
