Tahir Hussain arrested as court refuses to accept surrender application

NEW DELHI: Tahir Hussain, the suspended councillor from Nehru VIhar who was wanted by Delhi Police because of his alleged role in the murder of Intelligence Bureau officer Ankit Sharma, tried to surrender in a Delhi court on Thursday but the court refused to accept his surrender application saying the matter did not fall in its jurisdiction. Hussain was then taken into custody by Delhi Police.

Hussain who managed to talk to the media before his arrest said that he was innocent and had full faith in the judiciary and expected himself to come out clean. Tahir Hussain had claimed to be a victim of a witch hunt himself. Hussain said that he is a riot victim himself.

"My family and I ran away from rioters and the police were also informed about it. On February 24, I left with my family in the presence of police. The police took possession of the building," Tahir Hussain said. He also said that his house falls at the border of both minority and majority communities in the locality. He claimed that his house was misused in his absence on February 25.

He said that on February 24, police conducted a search of my building and moved us out from there. Later, we shifted to a safe location."

The Delhi Police also did a flip-flop on its versions on the sequence of events on February 24. A day after one of its officers said that former Aam Aadmi Party councillor Tahir Hussain was "rescued" along with his family by the police on the intervening night of February 24 and 25, Delhi Police has denied the claim.

Additional CP Singla had stated earlier "After getting a stress call from Tahir Hussain, a team of police went to the building belonging to him. He refused to come out of the building without a police escort after which he was taken out by a team of police."

However, the Delhi Police denied this claim later and said "The facts are that on the intervening night of February 24-25, some men informed police deployed at Chand Bagh that Tahir Hussain was trapped as crowd had surrounded his house. The police verified the same to be incorrect and Tahir Hussain was found available in his house."

It further added, "Tahir Hussain was named as accused on February 26, upon recovery of the body of the IB staffer. His house was searched and he was found absconding."