Former Aam Aadmi Party councillor Tahir Hussain is embedded in popular consciousness as the man who masterminded the February 2020 riots in Northeast Delhi that occurred on the day then US President Donald Trump landed in India. The motive behind his villainy, it was said, was to exploit Trump’s visit to rivet the world’s attention on the protests against the discriminatory Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, leading to the clamour that such a man should not be forgiven. Sure enough, Delhi Police booked Tahir under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and packed him off to jail, where he languishes still.

In many ways, though, Tahir is arguably the biggest victim of the Delhi riots. In a five-part series on the Delhi riots for The Wire, N D Jayaprakash showed Tahir’s four-storey building at Khajuri Khas, one of the sites of the violence, came under attack on February 24. He made 12 calls to the police. They belatedly arrived around 8 pm at the building, which, spread over 1,100 square yards, housed his residence, his company’s office and a furniture production unit. They searched the sprawling construction to ensure intruders were not hiding there. Tahir and his family shifted out, and handed over the keys of the building to Delhi Police.