NEW DELHI, July 28 -- The Delhi Police on Monday sought capital punishment for former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain and four others convicted in the murder of Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer Ankit Sharma during the 2020 Delhi riots, terming the killing as "exceptionally brutal", "cold-blooded" and falling within the "rarest of the rare" category. The submissions were made by special public prosecutor Madhukar Pandey before additional sessions judge Parveen Singh at Karkardooma Courts. The court reserved its order on the quantum of sentence for July 31. "Ankit Sharma was abducted and relentlessly assaulted in a hapless manner. A total of 51 injuries were inflicted upon the victim, and 18 of them were through sharp-edged weapons. It is not a case where somebody was stabbed once or thrice," the prosecution argued, noting that the accused continued assaulting Sharma even after his death. "The accused were not human beings; they were animals. They did not have respect for the dead and should therefore be kept behind bars and given the death sentence," the prosecutor added. "The nature of weapons used by the accused shows the intent and the diabolical nature of the crime. It was a cold-blooded murder with a deliberate desire. No one carries a heavy cutting weapon without deliberation, akin to a butcher," the prosecutor submitted. On July 13, a Delhi court convicted Hussain and four others for Sharma's murder, holding that Hussain, along with an "armed" mob, had carried out a "savage" and "relentless" attack. It held that the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that Hussain was part of an "unlawful assembly which, with animus against Hindus, had assembled at Chand Bagh Pulia with a common object to commit rioting, loot, arson and cause damage to Hindus and their properties." Buttressing its plea for the death sentence, the prosecution called the offence "one of the gravest cases of extreme culpability". "No evidence has been brought on record to show that any mercy was shown by anyone to carry the victim to a hospital. Hussain abdicated his responsibility of public service as a councillor," it submitted. Hussain, represented by advocate Rajiv Mohan, argued, "No person has directly implicated me during the trial, and the court has found no evidence of any criminal conspiracy behind the incident. Injuries aren't criteria to decide death sentence." The court had convicted Hussain and four others of murder while acquitting six others of all charges, including criminal conspiracy. According to prosecution, Sharma was killed near his home in Khajuri Khas on February 25, 2020, after he ran into clashes between two groups....