Tahir Hussain trail leads to Kejriwal, Sisodia

The details of phone calls of Tahir Hussain, suspended from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) following allegations that he incited violence in north-east Delhi and that he might have played a role in the rape and murder of a woman, have led to an even more shocking revelation. The call details of three days before the anti-CAA riots show Hussain had spoken to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and Okhla Village MLA Amanatullah Khan for three days before the area he lives in erupted.

According to information received from sources, Tahir Hussain called Khan 56 times, Deputy Chief Minister Sisodia 18 times and Chief Minister Kejriwal nine times in the said period.

North-east Delhi erupted in riots when some Hindus, harangued for the past two months, objected to Muslims protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in north-east Delhi. The law-abiding citizens feared that the scourge of Shaheen Bagh may spread to other parts of the capital city.

However, it became evident on Sunday that the other side was more than ready to escalate matters. Tahir Hussain was not just seen wielding a stick on the roof of his house, stashed with weapons of rioting like catapults, acid and rocks, during the riots.

Worse, Tahir Hussain was implicated by a television channel in a suspected case of rape and murder. On camera, an acquaintance of Tahir Hussain pointed at the burnt undergarments of a woman found in the basement of the AAP councillor’s house and said the undies were of a woman whose body has been found in a drain nearby.

The riots, which an SIT of the Crime Branch of Delhi Police is investigating, killed 42 people.

Yesterday, a 60-year-old garbage-recycler died in the riots, after which the death toll reached 43.

On Friday, the Health Department confirmed four more deaths.

Intelligence Bureau security assistant Ankit Sharma and Delhi Police head constable Ratan Lal were killed in the violence. The first was brutalised to death, seen in the autopsy report of his body that mentioned 400 odd stab wounds. The second was shot dead by a rioter.

Police have so far registered a total of 123 FIRs in connection with the north-east Delhi communal violence. Police say they have detained 623 people.

Four days after the violence, shops opened in some riotous areas of north-east Delhi. The situation is hesitatingly returning to normalcy.