New Delhi: Intelligence Bureau (IB) staffer Ankit Sharma, 26 at the time, was awaiting his promotion to assistant sub-inspector in February 2020, when he was killed and his body dumped in a drain in North East Delhi’s Chand Bagh Pulia area.
A Delhi University graduate, cricket player, and government employee, Ankit had decided on a path for himself, but everything changed when communal riots broke out in his neighbourhood in North East Delhi on 23 February 2020. Ankit’s body was recovered from a drain, barely 200-300 metres from his house. He was one of 53 killed in the riots.
On Monday, a Delhi court convicted former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain and four others in Ankit Sharma’s murder, while acquitting six others. The 320-page court order said Tahir instigated the mob that assaulted and killed Ankit.
His brother Ankur told ThePrint that Ankit was killed while he was on duty. “My brother was a hardworking government employee. Not once did he hesitate to go out while the neighbourhood was burning. He was killed while he was on duty,” said Ankur.
He also said that Ankit appeared for multiple entrance examinations for a government job in 2016. That year, he managed to crack the exam for the post of constable and head constable with the Delhi Police.
His aim, however, was to join the IB. He cracked that too, for the role of head constable.
The IB conducts its own exam, and has its own cadre. In 2017, Ankit was posted at the IB headquarters in Delhi. In 2017 and 2018, he was sent on training to Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh and Jodhpur in Rajasthan. Since 2017, he was working as a head constable.
‘He wouldn’t talk about his job’
Ankit’s family relocated to Delhi from Muzzafarnagar in Uttar Pradesh about 20 years ago. His father was employed with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The family was familiar with the streets of North East Delhi—narrow lanes, neighbours who became family.
“He (Ankit) would make friends with anybody, some we don’t even remember. He had friends from the neighbourhood, in college, and then work. He would be present to help out anybody who was in need,” Ankur told ThePrint.
Even on the day Ankit went missing, the family initially assumed he would be at a friend’s residence. “All his friends still call us. They are there for us, whenever we miss bhai. He built this world for us, where we can retain such fond memories,” said Ankur.
Ankur added that Ankit always wanted to join the fauj. “He was all about joining the Army, or the police. He wanted to work for India.” Growing up in a village meant having fauji inspirations, he said. “Every young boy joined the Army. Ankit wanted to do the same.”
Ankur also recalled his brother humming Haryanvi songs, and trying to pester his friends to play cricket. He added that Ankit had been playing cricket on the muddy fields, streets and parks of North East Delhi since the age of four. He also liked hockey, kabaddi, and wrestling. “He would also play cricket for Delhi’s IB team. He won several awards.”
The two brothers, with a gap of one year between them, studied at Delhi University; Ankit at Hansraj College, and Ankur at Shyam Lal College. Ankit cleared the IB entrance exam in 2016, and subsequently joined the central agency in 2017.
At home, Ankit largely kept to himself. “He would not talk about his job. He would travel to multiple places,” said Ankur, adding that just weeks before the killing Ankit had told his family that he would soon be promoted to the rank of ASI.
“We miss him, especially when we are taking selfies. There is a void. It cannot be filled,” said Ankur, adding that the family misses Ankit most on Rakshabandhan. “My sister finds it difficult to come to terms with the loss. My parents too. It’s just that we had never imagined the brutality of the crime,” Ankur told ThePrint.
He added that Ankit loved the mountains, particularly Uttarakhand, Kashmir, and Himachal. “I miss my brother pestering me to ride a bike in the mountains. It was so scary. My brother had so much to see, so much to travel. He was gone too soon.”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)