A court in Jharkhand’s Seraikela-Kharsawan district on Wednesday sentenced 10 men convicted for lynching Tabrez Ansari in 2019 to 10 years’ imprisonment, Livelaw reported.
Last month, the court had found the 10 guilty under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code.
The court has also imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 on each of the convicts – Bhim Singh Munda, Kamal Mahato, Madan Nayak, Atul Mahali, Sunamo Pradhan, Vikram Mandal, Chamu Nayak, Prem Chand Mahali, Mahesh Mahali.
Ansari was beaten by a mob who apparently thought he was a thief, and forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Jai Hanuman’ on June 18, 2019. He died days later, in police custody. In September 2019, police dropped the murder charge from the chargesheet – a decision which has been questioned and criticised. The police used the final post-mortem report, which says Ansari died of “cardiac arrest”, to drop the murder charge.
The police’s role in the case has come under question from the very beginning. When Ansari was taken into custody, the police did not file a case against the people who had attacked him. That case was filed only after his death, based on a complaint from his wife. A fact-finding team from the Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha had also found that the police had denied Ansari proper medical treatment and also threatened his family.
Ansari’s death became a matter of concern for the police only after a video of the mob attacking him went viral on social media.
A probe panel appointed by the district administration also found lapses on the police’s part, and said that doctors at the first hospital Ansari was taken to were also responsible as they cleared him for custody despite severe head injuries.
