GUWAHATI: Seven years after a teenager in Assam was lynched by a mob, his family is on the verge of getting justice.
The District and Sessions Court, Diphu, in Karbi Anglong district on Monday convicted 12 people and acquitted four others in connection with the 2013 Jhankar Saikia mob lynching case.
The court will pronounce the quantum of punishment on February 28. Two policemen were among the four people acquitted.
Jhankar’s father Haren Saikia, who is a lawyer, thanked the police and the judiciary for the conviction of the 12 people.
“I had complete faith in the judiciary. Had it not been so, I wouldn’t have lived to this day. I can never forget that day when my son was brutally murdered,” Saikia told journalists outside the court complex.
On that fateful day, the father-son duo was brutally beaten up by a group of auto-rickshaw drivers during an argument over fare. They had refused to pay Rs.30 instead of the regular fare of Rs.20.
Initially, the mob had attacked Jhankar. Saikia faced the wrath of the mob when he tried to save his son. The attack was perpetrated in full view of some policemen but they had allegedly made no attempt to save the man and his son.
Jhankar, a college student who had sustained grievous injuries, was rushed to a local hospital but he succumbed to his injuries a few days later.
Trial in another mob lynching case in the district is on. In that incident, two youth from affluent families from Guwahati were lynched by a mob that suspected the duo of being child-lifters. Over 40 people, arrested by the police, are facing the charge of murder.