Delhi HC Quashes Overlapping FIR Against Ex-Councillor Tahir Hussain

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday has quashed an FIR filed against former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain in connection with the violence that occurred in northeast Delhi in February 2020.

The court noted the existence of a prior FIR linked to the same incident and ruled that the chargesheet from the second FIR should be treated as supplementary to the first case.

Justice Subramonium Prasad, who delivered the judgment, explained that the incident in question, which occurred on February 24, 2020, was already the subject of an FIR filed on February 25, 2020.

This initial FIR was based on a complaint from a police officer, while the subsequent FIR, registered 2 days later, arose from a complaint by another individual and involved similar charges of rioting and mischief.

Both FIRs pertain to the same series of events in a building, where rioters first vandalized the ground floor before moving to the first floor, where food was being prepared for a wedding. The rioters set fire to goods and destroyed property on the first floor.

The court ruled that the two incidents were part of a single larger event and thus should be treated as one.

Despite the overlap, the court acknowledged that the trial was underway in both cases and that different victims were involved in each. Quashing the second FIR entirely would have left the victims without legal redress.

Therefore, the court directed that the chargesheet from the second FIR be included as a supplementary chargesheet to the first FIR, allowing the trial to continue without disruption.

The court noted that there were common witnesses across both FIRs, and no prejudice would be caused by merging the chargesheets.

It further emphasized that the mistake of filing two FIRs for the same event should not lead to an injustice for the victims involved in the first FIR, who would otherwise be left without a remedy.

The violence in northeast Delhi in February 2020 resulted in at least 53 fatalities and left hundreds injured. Hussain, who has faced multiple charges related to the violence, was represented by lawyer Tara Narula during the court proceedings.

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