The BJP-led East Delhi Municipal Corporation has proposed termination of EDMC membership of suspended AAP councillor Tahir Hussain, citing alleged “violation” of municipal norms, officials said on Thursday. Hussain, who was elected councillor from Nehru Vihar ward of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation, is in jail since March for his alleged involvement in the killing of IB staffer Ankit Sharma during the communal violence that shook northeast Delhi in February.
“As per the rule of the DMC Act, if a member is absent in all meetings for three successive months without permission of the corporation, then the corporation may declare his seat vacant,” said a senior EDMC official in the municipal secretary’s office. The proposal will now be sent to the Lt Governor of Delhi, he said.
East Delhi Mayor Nirmal Jain claimed, “no information” has been received by his office or the municipal secretary’s office, from Hussain’s lawyers or his family, citing the “reason of his absence in three successive House meetings”. “We know he’s in jail. But, we used to send a copy of the meeting invite and agenda to his office before every House meeting, but we got no reply, so the DMC rules have been applied,” the senior official said.
Jain said the move comes in keeping with Section 33 (2) of the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act. The mayor said the proposal to terminate his membership from EDMC House was passed in its meeting on Wednesday.
Hussain is currently lodged in Tihar Jail in connection with northeast Delhi riots in February. Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.
In the 50-page charge sheet, Hussain has been named as one of the main accused along with nine others for the murder of the IB official during the communal violence. A Delhi BJP spokesperson had recently demanded that the party-ruled EDMC immediately terminate the membership of Hussain.
BJP’s Praveen Shankar Kapoor had written a letter to the mayor, seeking termination of Hussain on the same grounds.
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