RANCHI: In a major development, 11 out of the 13 persons accused in Tabrez Ansari mob-lynching case were held guilty by a Saraikela Court in Jharkhand.
According to the prosecution lawyer Altaf Hussain — representing Tabrez Ansari's wife Shahista Parveen — two of the accused persons were acquitted by Additional Session Judge Amit Shekhar as no evidence was found against them. The advocate said that the decision over the quantum of punishment will be taken on July 5.
One of the accused persons – Kushal Mahli died during trial while the remaining 10 were sent to jail immediately after their conviction, he said.
“Out of the 13 people accused in the case, the court of additional session judge Amit Shekher on Tuesday held 10 of them guilty under section 304 of IPC, while the other two – Sumanto Mahto and Satyanarayan Nayak, were acquitted,” said advocate Altaf Hussain.
“I am confident that all the convicted persons will be sentenced to life imprisonment,” the advocate said.
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 24-year-old Ansari died of cardiac arrest. The autopsy report, prepared earlier by the medical board in the case, suggested that the
stress-induced cardiac arrest was what killed Tabrez Ansari on June 22.
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 persons at Dhatkidih village in Seraikela-Kharsawan district when he and two of his associates
allegedly tried to enter a house with the intention of committing 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.