New Delhi: Ankit Sharma, a resident of Khajuri Khas locality in northeast Delhi, had been missing since Tuesday evening. A day later, his body was recovered from a drain in Chand Bagh.
His father Ravinder Sharma, who works for the Delhi Police, blamed AAP corporator Tahir Hussain for the death of his son.
Hussain is the party's corporator from Nehru Vihar area of Mustafabad.
"My son was coming back from duty. 15-20 people came from Tahir's building and took him along with a few others," Ravinder Sharma told reporters. "When people went to free them, they were fired upon and attacked with petrol bombs. Acid was also thrown on them."
While the autopsy report is awaited, locals claimed Ankit Sharma could have died in stone-pelting.
BJP leader Kapil Mishra shared a video alleging that stone-pelters led by Hussain had murdered Ankit Sharma. He also alleged that Hussain was speaking to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal through the rampage.
Mishra uploaded a video that shows a person, wearing a maroon half-sweater and brandishing a lathi, on a rooftop. Mishra claimed it was Hussain who had been pelting stones and petrol bombs. He also alleged that Ankit Sharma's family had said the AAP corporator was behind the murder.
The video with the same allegations was shared by the office of BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri with this correspondent. In the video, smoke is seen billowing from the area behind a house. On the rooftop are men with sticks. A background voice, possibly that of the person filming, says that the man in the maroon sweater is Tahir Hussain and that he is paying people to bring in crates of stones to pelt people below. The background voice also says that the plan is to pelt stones through the night.
However, AAP sources said Hussain himself had been trapped at his residence for more than eight hours on Monday.
"He was trapped in his own house for over eight hours on February 24. And he was taken out by the police," said a source.
Hussain also released a video later on Wednesday in which he claims to have been a victim of mob violence himself and that he was rescued by the police two days ago. He claimed that a mob had taken over his house, using it to launch attacks, and that he has not returned home since.
Speaking to CNN-News18, Hussain denied the allegations. "The day the riots broke out, I called the police but there was no response... when they responded I told them that my house was under attack.
We did not get any support from the cops initially. It was Sanjay Singh who intervened and helped me to get in touch with Delhi Police. When I spoke to DCP Surya, he assured me that he will help.
“When the police came, my family and I evacuated our residence. My house was later taken over by the police and they conducted a search. The next day, when I went home, the mob that was present there tried to heckle me and seeing this I ran away,” he added.
Referring to the stones and petrol bombs seen at his house, he said: “On the night of 24th, this building was under the control of Delhi Police. I do not know how all this material ended up in the building.”
He added: "I am the one in the video but we were trying to remove people and douse the fire near our home. This video is from February 24. I was on the phone trying to seek help, I was protecting my house.”
The police so far have not commented on the allegations against Hussain.
Ankit Sharma, a 2017-batch probationer, was a security assistant with the IB in the Motor Transport department. Officials said he was training as a driver.
This is the second death of a police personnel in the violence that broke out on Monday, after Constable Ratan Lal was killed in stone-pelting.
The Delhi Police have come in for a lot of criticism for not taking action against rioters. A top functionary of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) told CNN-News18 that local MLAs have informed Home Minister Amit Shah that on both days the police was found wanting in riot-affected areas.
"A few MLAs even alleged that some policemen were seen twiddling with their mobiles, sitting in their vehicles instead of patrolling the riot-affected interiors," said an MHA functionary said.
The feedback, as per sources, led Shah to decide in consultation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi that National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval be given the mandate to quell the riots. Doval then visited Northeast Delhi on Wednesday evening, interacting with those affected by the violence, after which he briefed Shah about the situation.
(With inputs from Rupashree Nanda and Nitisha Kashyap)
Comments
0 comment