Suspended AAP councillor Tahir Hussain confesses role in Delhi riots: Police

An Interrogation Report by Delhi Police has said that suspended Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain has confessed to orchestrating the riots that broke out in northeast Delhi in February this year, reported ANI.

Hussain is one of the accused in the killing of IB officer Ankit Sharma, whose body was recovered from a drain near the Chand Bagh area of northeast Delhi on February 26.

According to the interrogation report, Tahir had met former Jawaharlal Nehru University student Umar Khaid at the Popular Front of India (PFI) office at Shaheen Bagh on January 8.

Before the riots, he reportedly had collected glass bottles, acid, stones and stacked them on the roof of his house. Hussain has reportedly told the police that he took his pistol from the police station to be used in the riots. His acquaintance Khalid was entrusted with gathering people on the streets for protest.

The report says Saifi along his friends Ishrat Jahan first started a dharna in Khureji. Hussain had reportedly met Saifi in Abu Fazal Enclave on February 4 to plan the riots.

“On February 4, in Abu Fazal Enclave, I met Khalid Saifi for planning the riots. It was decided to provoke people sitting on the anti-CAA strike. Khalif Saifi said that something big has to be done at the time of Donald Trump’s visit so that the government kneel,” ANI quoted the police report as saying.

Hussain reportedly told the police that he called several people to his house on February 24 and asked them to throw stones, petrol bombs and acid bottles from his roof.

He had shifted his family to another place.