AAP councillor Tahir Hussain held, sent to 7 days police custody
New Delhi: Just after a Delhi court on Thursday dismissed a plea seeking surrender by suspended Aam Aadmi Party councillor Tahir Hussain, the Delhi police arrested him and took him into custody. Hussain is charged with the alleged killing of Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma in northeast Delhi.
On Thursday, additional chief metropolitan magistrate Vishal Pahuja rejected Hussain’s plea saying that the relief sought by him was outside its jurisdiction. Hussain moved the surrender application before the court saying that he was willing to join the investigation and wanted to surrender in the case.
The court said that as per the provisions of Section 177 CrPC (ordinary place of inquiry and trial), the offence shall ordinarily be inquired into and tried by a court within whose local jurisdiction it is committed.
“In the instant case, the offence has been committed within the jurisdiction of PS Dayalpur, which falls within the jurisdiction of the Karkardooma court. The reason given in the application for moving this application does not justify the conduct of the applicant to choose this forum for seeking reliefs,” the judge said.
Advocate Mukesh Kalia, appearing for Hussain, said there was a grave apprehension of threat to his life and therefore he has not surrendered before the competent court as there is “a charged environment” in the Karkardooma district court. He said Hussain had no connection or involvement in the FIR registered by the police and he was being falsely implicated. Considering the gravity of the situation, Hussain wishes to surrender before the court, he said.
The court said the Delhi high court has specifically made a division of the jurisdictions, be that of police stations or courts district-wise and work has been allocated accordingly. It said: “This court is a special designated court dealing with the matters of MPs/MLAs. The high court has designated this court as a special court to deal with cases on fast track with endeavour to dispose of the same within one year as its objective.
“The applicant does not fall in the aforesaid category, hence this application cannot be even entertained by this court.”
The court further said the relief sought by Hussain does not fall within the domain or jurisdiction of this court, “hence, no such relief can be granted. In view of the observations, the application deserves to be dismissed”.
As the court dismissed Hussain’s plea, a Delhi police team, which had already arrived, arrested him and took him into custody. Hussain moved the surrender application before the court, saying he was willing to join the investigation and wanted to surrender in the case.
Hussain has been booked in the murder case of the IB staffer in northeast Delhi amid violence over the new citizenship law last week. Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party had then suspended him for alleged involvement in the violence, which has left at least 47 people dead and around 200 others injured.
