Tahir Hussain, wanted in IB staffer Ankit Sharma’s murder, arrested at Delhi court

New Delhi: Suspended Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain was arrested on Thursday as he reached a Delhi court to surrender in connection with an FIR registered against him over violence in Northeast Delhi. Hussain was taken into custody by Delhi Police’s Crime Branch.

The court had earlier rejected his anticipatory bail plea, observing that no one appeared from his side.

Hussain has been named in the FIR filed by the family of an Intelligence Bureau (IB) official, who accused him of murdering he 26-year-old. The official Ankit Sharma’s body was found in a drain in Chand Bagh, near Hussain’s house.

Hussain had told a TV channel moments before heading for the court that he is going to surrender. He had reiterated that he had left Chand Bagh, one of the worst affected areas in Delhi violence, on February 24 after being rescued by the police from his three-storey house. “My Allah knows I am not guilty,” he had said.

He was suspended by the AAP after allegations from the IB official’s family. Sharma’s family claims that Hussain incited the mob which had caught the IB official and killed him.

The police had, meanwhile, issued a clarification after users on social media claiming that a police team “rescued” Hussain and his family from their house in Chand Bagh during the riots.

The Delhi Police had eaelier said that Hussain is absconding along with his family members and has switched off his cellphone. The last known location of his cellphone was near the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border, an investigator associated with the case said, asking not to be named.