Former AIMIM leader gets life imprisonment for killing man in Telangana

Hyderabad: A court in Adilabad district on Monday sentenced a former AIMIM leader to life imprisonment for killing a man and injuring two others after opening fire on them on December 18, 2020.

A special fast-track court found Farooq Ahmed, guilty of murdering a former councilor of Adilabad Municipality and sentenced him to undergo life imprisonment.

Similarly, the court sentenced Farooq Ahmed to seven years of rigorous imprisonment on the charge of attempt to murder (for injuring two others) under relevant IPC sections and he was also awarded three years imprisonment under the Arms Act, Public Prosecutor M Ramana Reddy said. All the sentences shall run concurrently, he said.

The court also imposed a total fine of Rs 12,000 on Farooq Ahmed, who was the former president of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) Adilabad district unit and also a former vice-chairman of Adilabad municipality.

The prosecution sought for death penalty citing it to be a ”rarest of rare” case, but the court rejected their contention and awarded life imprisonment to the accused. According to police, on December 18, 2020, a petty squabble turned into an altercation between two rival groups after a scuffle between two youth over a cricket match in Adilabad town, following which Farooq Ahmed opened fire at the rival group using his licensed revolver, injuring three people.

Syed Zameer, a former councilor of Adilabad municipality, who was among the injured, later succumbed to his injuries at a government hospital in Hyderabad on December 26, 2020.