AAP councillor Tahir Hussain converted Rs 1.5 crore in white money to black to fund riots: Charge sheet

AAP councillor Tahir Hussain converted his own Rs 1.5 crore in white money into black for funding the riots in February -- Delhi Police made this claim in its charge sheet on the larger conspiracy behind the communal violence that claimed 53 lives.

The charge sheet filed on September 16 claimed that Hussain, a high school dropout, was "enamoured and taken in by the aura" of the intelligentsia, like Umar Khalid and others who were "key conspirators" of the riots.

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Suspended from the AAP, Hussain is facing charges for his involvement in the murder of Intelligence Bureau personnel Ankit Sharma during the riots. He is also among 15 people charge sheeted for the larger conspiracy in the riots case.

According to the charge sheet, Hussain was drafted in by Umar Khalid and Khalid Saifi after realising that the anti-CAA protests in December had little mass presence and no window for mass mobilisation, as all the previous attempts belonged to "elite, intellectual class of activists who did not have any permanent roots".

Umar Khalid and Khalid Saifi met Hussain on January 8 along the sidelines of the Shaheen Bagh protest in the office of Popular Front of India.

Hussain "brought with him money, muscle and community base, much required by the key conspirators...Hussain became the sledge hammer to the conspiracy," the charge sheet claimed.

It goes on to claim that Hussain "comes across as a unique case who, for financing the protests and riots, through a complex web of intermediaries converted Rs 1.5 crore approximately of his own while money to black ie. ready cash for the purpose of distribution and use by rioters".

Police claimed that it was corroborated by an analysis of relevant bank accounts and supplemented by testimonies of public witnesses.

He is also accused of providing money to purchase the pistol which was used to murder Rahul Solanki as well as disbursing cash to a women's group 'Pinjra Tod' through a student activist Gulfisha. He is also charged with financing two persons, who played an important role in the violence at Chand Bagh and murder of Head Constable Rattan Lal.

Hussain along with others like former Congress councillor Ishrat Jahan, Khalid Saifi, Shifa-ur-Rehman and Meeran Haider also received around Rs 1.61 crore through bank or cash transactions between December 1, 2019 and February 26, 2020. Out of the Rs 1.61 crore, around Rs 1.48 crore was withdrawn in cash and spent in managing the protest sites as well to execute the conspiracy.

"Apart from whatever Tahir Hussain did on his own account as a highly motivated accused, his real contribution to the wider conspiracy was in providing actual men and women on ground who danced to the tune set by the key conspirators," the charge sheet claimed.

Being a "shrewd politician who understood the ground realities of his locality", the charge sheet claimed that Hussain "left no stone unturned to physically prepare for the coming violence" and stock piled stones, glass bottles, acid, petrol and slingshots. He also got his licenced revolver, which was deposited with police, released two days before the riots and 22 spent cartridges were recovered from his house.