New Delhi: A Delhi court on Wednesday acquitted former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Councillor Tahir Hussain, who was charged with defacing public property in 2015.
Police had filed a case against Hussain on charges of putting a plastic board on an electric pole with his and Delhi chief minister Arvin Kejriwal's photograph with a message "Aap Sabhi ko Nav Varsh Ki Mubarakbad. Dilli one pukara Kejriwal Dubara" (Wishing you a Happy New Year) in 2015.
Hussain was booked in this case after a Head Constable from Karawal Nagar police station spotted the board hung on an electric pole.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Arun Kumar Garg acquitted Hussain under section 3 of the Delhi Prevention of Defacement of Property Act, 2007, observing that "there is not even an iota of evidence led by the prosecution to prove that the board/hoarding was either installed by the accused or that the same was installed at his instance for his benefit".
The court added that the investigating officer has failed to point out in the chargesheet how he had pinned down the accused as the installer of the board as "he has neither recorded the statement of residents of the locality where the board in question was found affixed by police nor has he recorded the statement of the printer".
The court noted that none of the witnesses deposed that the board had been hung by Hussain and only during the cross-examination of the two police witnesses did they state that they made enquiries with people from the locality who took Hussain's name.
The court also observed that the police witnesses had made improved statements as they could not disclose the names of the public witnesses who made these allegations.
Hussain is currently under judicial custody in a UAPA case in connection with the Northeast Delhi riots.