Rush Hour: Ex-AAP member gets life term for Delhi riots, NSA invoked against Assam activist & more

A Delhi court sentenced former Aam Aadmi Party councilor Tahir Hussain and four others to life imprisonment for the murder of Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma during the 2020 riots in the capital. The court rejected the Delhi Police’s plea seeking death penalty, saying that capital punishment is the “last resort”.

The judge held that the convicts were not beyond reformation. It described the crime as committed with “utmost brutality” but noted that there was no evidence of a violent disposition or previous violent crimes.

Sharma was killed by a mob during the violence, and his body had been dumped in a drain. Hussain was convicted for murder and other offences but was acquitted of criminal conspiracy. Read on.

The Assam government invoked the National Security Act against activist Pranab Doley, a day after he was granted bail by a sessions court. The invocation of the Act means that the activist will not be released despite the bail order.

Doley was among among two activists arrested on July 12, days after he took part in a protest against a hotel project at Ingle Pathar, a village adjoining the Kaziranga National Park. The police alleged that during the protest, he “unlawfully trespassed into the site of the Tea Tribes Museum and thereafter...

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