A Delhi court on Friday 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 national capital, Bar and Bench reported.

Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Singh of the Karkardooma Court rejected the Delhi Police’s plea for the death penalty and said capital punishment is the “last resort”, The Indian Express reported.

The court held that the convicts were not beyond reformation and could be “disciplined and made to follow rules”.

However, the judge described the crime as being committed with “utmost brutality” and called the barbarity involved “nauseating and sickening”, the newspaper reported.

The court noted that the prosecution had not presented evidence showing that the convicts had a violent disposition or a tendency to commit such offences.

It also said there was no evidence of previous violent crimes and that their conduct in custody had been “entirely satisfactory”, apart from minor infractions, Bar and Bench reported.

The Delhi Police had sought the death penalty, arguing that Sharma’s murder was brutal and cold-blooded.

“Those who want mercy should also show mercy,” the police’s counsel had said.

The defence opposed the plea, arguing that the death penalty should only be awarded in the rarest of rare cases.

Sharma was killed by a mob during the violence, and his body had been dumped in a drain.

On July 13, a sessions court had convicted Hussain for murder, rioting, disobedience to an order promulgated by a public servant, promoting enmity between groups, rioting armed with a deadly weapon, unlawful assembly, and kidnapping or abducting with intent to secretly and wrongfully confine a person.

However, it cleared him of a criminal conspiracy charge.

In February 2020, communal violence broke out in North East Delhi between supporters of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposing it. The violence had left 53 dead and hundreds injured. Most of those killed were Muslims.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

Also read: What exactly happened in Delhi locality where AAP councillor stands accused of IB staffer’s murder?

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