RANCHI: Saraikela Court on Wednesday pronounced 10-year imprisonment to all the 10 convicts in the Tabrez Ansari lynching case.
Earlier, on June 27, 10 out of a total of 13 accused were held guilty by the court of Additional Session Judge, Amit Shekhar under section 304 of IPC.
According to the lawyer representing Tabrez Ansari’s wife, the court has also imposed a fine of Rs 23,100 on each of the convicts failing which they will have to undergo an additional imprisonment of 6 months.
“The court of Additional Session Judge Amit Shekhar pronounced 10-year rigorous imprisonment under section 304 (1) and imposed a fine of Rs 15000, 3 years and fine of Rs 5000 under section 325, 1 year and fine of Rs 1000 under section 295 (A), one year and fine of Rs 1000 under section 147, nine months and fine of Rs 800 under section 323 along with one-month imprisonment and Rs 300 fine under section 341 of IPC to all the 10 convicts in the case,” said Additional Public Prosecutor Praveen Kumar.
All these sentencing will run concurrently, he added.
Advocate Altaf Hussain representing Tabrez Ansari's wife Shahista Parveen, however, said that he is not satisfied with the punishment and will appeal to the High Court to get it converted into life imprisonment.
Tabrez Ansari’s wife Shahista Parveen and other relatives were present at the hearing.
The convicted include Prakash Mondal alias Pappu Mondal, Bhim Singh Munda, Sunamo Pradhan, Atul Mahali, Vikram Mondal, Chamu Nayak, Prem Chandra Mahali, Kamal Mahato, Madan Nayak and Mahesh Mahali.
Earlier on June 27, 10 out of the 13 accused were held guilty by the Court, and two of the accused -- Sumanto Mahto and Satyanarayan Nayak – were acquitted as no evidence was found against them. One of the accused, Kushal Mahli, died during the trial.
Notably, 24-year-old Ansari was thrashed for several hours after being tied to a pole and forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Jai Bajrang Bali’ on June 18, 2019, on suspicion of stealing a motorcycle with two other people.
It was alleged that Ansari had entered a house in the Seraikela-Kharsawan district with the intention to commit theft.
The police reached the spot the next morning and took Ansari to jail on the basis of a complaint lodged by the villagers. When Ansari’s condition deteriorated in jail, he was taken to the Sadar Hospital in Seraikela-Kharsawan, where he was diagnosed with multiple injuries. Later, he was referred to the Tata Main Hospital in Jamshedpur where he died on June 22.
Incidentally, the police had dropped murder charges against all the 13 accused in the mob lynching case and converted it into one of culpable homicide not amounting to murder (Section 304 of the IPC) on the basis of postmortem, medical and forensic reports which said that Ansari died of cardiac arrest.
The autopsy report, earlier prepared by the medical board in the case, suggested that the stress-induced cardiac arrest was what killed Tabrez Ansari on June 22.