The Delhi riots witnessed several gruesome incidents and murders, but the most heart-wrenching of them were IB staffer, Ankit Sharma’s brutal murder in Northeast Delhi’s Chand Bagh area amid the Delhi riots. Expelled AAP Corporator, Tahir Hussain has been blamed as involved in the killing by locals and even by Sharma’s family from the very beginning. Tahir Hussain has now been arrested. Meanwhile, reports have revealed that the IB staffer’s murder could have been a ‘targeted killing’.
Investigations into IB officer’s murder have revealed that Ankit Sharma’s murder might have been a “targeted killing”. Sharma was with his friend and other people when he tripped over a stone and fell. The mobs started assaulting him selectively while other people were not targeted by these mobs.
Sharma was on one side of the culvert while heavy stone pelting was going on from the other side. Three-four men came from the other side and overpowered him, dragging the IB staffer to the other side of the culvert.
Sources say, “Curiously, they did not touch anyone else but him.” People in the intelligence establishment believe that based on the prima facie chain of events, statements of the witnesses and preliminary medical opinion, Sharma’s killing seems to have been a murder with a motive.
As per reports after being overpowered, he was murdered in the most brutal manner possible. Autopsy reveals that Ankit Sharma was stabbed over 400 times, and his body was mutilated beyond belief. He had wounds all over his body and not even a single portion of it was spared.
He was stabbed for hours, four to six hours, by possibly as many as six individuals together. Moreover, his intestines were ripped apart, says the autopsy report. Forensic doctors reportedly said that they hadn’t seen such nightmarish mutilation in their lives. The report added that the body had “multiple abrasion.. deep cut.. by sharp edge objects”.
Now, the question arises as to why he was killed in such a gruesome manner while many people were being attacked during the riots. What could have been the purpose behind rioters handpicking only a particular individual for such brutality? There seems to be some kind of motive- enmity or vengeance that drove the killers to attack him that ferociously.
While other riot victims were attacked with bullets and stones, Sharma’s murder bears a distinct pattern. And the manner in which he was killed is not something that usually happens in mob violence/ rioting.
Investigators seem to concur. According to TOI, a senior intelligence official said, “The sequence indicates that the killers may have been trying to send across a message. This is bigger than what meets the eye.” An Investigator said, “The fact that Sharma was taken away and not killed or harmed at the spot by the mob had raised suspicion at first. The theory has only been strengthened as the sequence of events has become clearer. Vengeance is visible by the condition of the body. Nobody is killed like this usually by a mob.”
His affiliation to the IB seems to have triggered the gruesome murder. The murderers most likely wanted to send a message across to the Intelligence Bureau (IB) that routinely deals with illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, including criminal groups of such immigrants. What also gives credence to this belief is the fact that the location of a group of Bangladeshi criminals has come in the area of Sharma’s murder around the same time as the gruesome killing.
This vindicates Rajya Sabha member Subramanian Swamy who had tweeted, “The govt needs to clarify if IB officer Sharma was targeted and killed at the behest of Aap’s Tahir because Sharma was tailing him for Tahir’s Bangladesh terrorists connection. If true it becomes very very serious matter.”
The govt needs to clarify if IB officer Sharma was targeted and killed at the behest of Aap’s Tahir because Sharma was tailing him for Tahir’s Bangladesh terrorists connection. If true it becomes very very serious matter
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) February 28, 2020
The terror link behind Ankit Sharma’s murder is not a mere figment of imagination but a very reasonable belief. The area in question- Chand Bagh has had a notorious history when it comes to terror outfits. In 2016, a Jaish e Mohammed (JeM) terror module was busted in Chand Bagh by Delhi Police Special Cell officers and their IB counterparts. It is therefore not very difficult to imagine why nefarious elements in the area would have wanted to target the IB staffer.
Not just Chand Bagh, but Jaffrabad and Babarpur- areas which are nearby Chand Bagh and had also witnessed widespread violence during the Delhi riots are also infamous as elite counter-terror agency, NIA’s “usual suspect”. These same elements that have been on the radar of the intelligence establishment might have also been the ones orchestrating the riots, and causing Ankit Sharma’s death.
IB keeps a tab on the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and regularly monitors their anti-India activities. This could well have been another contributing factor behind the murderers handpicking and brutally killing him with the motive of sending a message to the IB and its sleuths.
Now, Tahir Hussain’s arrest and further developments into Ankit Sharma murder probe can be expected to reveal more shocking terror links into the heart-wrenching case.
