2018 Ankit Saxena murder case: Three sentenced to life in prison by Delhi judge

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Thursday sentenced three persons to life in prison for killing 23-year-old Ankit Saxena in a hate crime in west Delhi’s Raghubir Nagar because he was in an inter-faith relationship with their kin in February 2018.
“Taking into consideration your age, background, antecedents and the work that you did before the incident, I am sentencing you to life imprisonment,” said additional sessions judge Sunil Kumar Sharma.
The court also imposed a ₹50,000 fine each on the three convicts, the girl’s father Akbar Ali, her mother Shehnaz Begum, and her uncle Mohammad Salim guilty of murder, which will be given as compensation to Ankit Saxena’s family.
Ankit Saxena, a photographer by profession, was stabbed to death by his girlfriend’s parents, brother, and maternal uncle on February 1, 2018, because they disapproved of their relationship. Ankit’s mother Kamlesh ran to the street where her son was being thrashed by his girlfriend’s family and tried to save him. In front of her eyes, his throat was slit by a knife. She, too, was assaulted.

Saxena’s family with the help of other people took him to Guru Gobind Singh Hospital in an e-rickshaw, where he died before reaching the hospital.
The judge convicted the three on December 23, 2023, holding that the prosecution had been able to establish the murder and the relationship between Ankit and his girlfriend Shehadi that led to the murder in full public view.
In its December verdict, the court convicted the three for the charge of the offence punishable under Section 302 (murder)and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The court had additionally convicted Shahnaz Begum under section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of IPC for assaulting Saxena’s mother, Kamlesh Saxena, while she was trying to protect her son.
The prosecution relied upon 28 witnesses with key witnesses being Saxena’s father, Yashpal Saxena, mother and his friends, Nitin, and Anmol.
In 2018, after Ankit was killed, tension gripped Raghubir Nagar, a lower-middle-class colony, and several attempts were made by local leaders to further communalise the case of hate crime. Ankit’s father, Yashpal, and his son’s friends, however, made several public appeals against this..