The Delhi High Court has quashed an FIR against former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain, who was implicated in the northeast Delhi violence of February 2020. The court determined that the FIR overlapped with another one related to the same incident, leading to the decision to treat it as a supplementary chargesheet in the original case.
Justice Subramonium Prasad noted that both FIRs pertained to events that occurred sequentially within the same building during the violent outbreaks. The first FIR, lodged on February 25, 2020, was based on a complaint by a policeman and concerned rioting and mischief on the ground floor of a building. The second FIR, which was ultimately quashed, was registered two days later on a separate complaint for similar offences occurring on the first floor where a marriage ceremony was being prepared.
The court observed that the sequence of events described in both complaints suggested that the rioters first vandalized the ground floor and then moved to the first floor, indicating that both instances were part of a single continuous incident. Given this, the court ruled that maintaining separate charges for what was essentially a single chain of events would be redundant and potentially unjust to the victims of the second FIR.
In his ruling on November 26, Justice Prasad emphasized that while the trial had commenced for both cases, merging the charges would prevent any potential prejudice against the witnesses and victims involved in both incidents. He directed that the chargesheet filed under the quashed FIR be considered supplementary to the first, ensuring that all pertinent evidence and testimonies are consolidated under a single judicial proceeding.
This decision came as a relief to Hussain, who faced numerous legal challenges following the riots that left at least 53 dead and around 700 injured. The overlapping FIR had compounded the complexities of his defense, represented by advocate Tara Narula.
