A Karkardooma court has sentenced former councillor Tahir Hussain to two years of rigorous imprisonment in a Delhi riots case, holding him guilty of rioting and of abetting and facilitating the offence by providing his house and its rooftop to rioters. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000.
Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Singh ordered that Hussain will serve an additional 10 days of simple imprisonment if he fails to pay the fine. The court also granted him the benefit of the period already spent in custody.
The sentencing follows the court’s October 10 finding that Hussain was guilty in the case. The prosecution had argued that his house became a central location during violence in the Khajuri Khas and Karawal Nagar Road areas in northeast Delhi in 2020. According to the prosecution, rioters were sheltered in the house and used its rooftop to throw stones and other objects at members of the public.
While announcing the sentence, the court said Hussain had been a publicly elected representative in 2020 and was expected to help maintain peace and communal harmony in the area. Instead, the court held, he used his position to assist the violence. The court observed that “the hand that guides is as guilty as, or even more guilty than, the hand that attacks”.
The defence argued that Hussain had not joined the rioting crowd and that the mob had forcibly taken control of his house. It also referred to an alleged attempt to inform the police control room. The court, however, said the defence had not produced concrete evidence of a police control room call and that no official complaint had been filed alleging that the house had been forcibly occupied.
The court further held that not physically joining the crowd did not by itself remove Hussain’s responsibility, since the allegation that he provided facilities to the rioters had been proved in the case. The sentencing order described the role of an elected representative in a riot-affected neighbourhood as carrying a heightened responsibility for maintaining public order.
The court noted that this is the second Delhi riots-related case in which Hussain has been convicted and sentenced. He had earlier been convicted in another case linked to the Dayalpur police station. The latest proceedings therefore add to the legal cases involving the former councillor, who was elected from the northeast Delhi area.
A socio-economic report presented before the court stated that Hussain had studied up to Class 10, earned approximately Rs 2 lakh a month and had four dependants. The court was also informed that nine cases had previously been registered against him. The present sentence relates to the specific offences established in this case and does not determine the outcome of any other pending matter.
The latest order places the conduct of elected representatives during communal violence at the centre of the court’s findings. Hussain’s custody, the payment of the fine and the legal consequences of his earlier conviction will now proceed according to the court’s order.
