JAMSHEDPUR/RANCHI: The Seraikela court on Wednesday pronounced 10 years rigorous imprisonment (RI) to all the 10 convicts for lynching Tabrez Ansari in 2019.The court of additional district judge (ADJ 1), Amit Shekhar,convicted the accused under Sections 304, 323, 325, 341, 295 (A) and 149 IPCand imposed a penalty of Rs 15,000 on each of the accused.The court had pronounced the accused guilty in the case on June 27, and reserved July 5 for pronouncing the quantum of punishment.The case involves the lynching of 24-year-old, Tabrez Ansari, in Dhatkidih village under Seraikela police station on the night of June 17, 2019.
Tabrez was brutally beaten up by an angry mob for allegedly trying to barge into the house of Kamal Mahato in Dhatkidih.
Kamal is one of the convicts.The villagers handed over Tabrez to the police on June 18 morning and he was sent to Seraikela jail the same day.Subsequently, on June 22, four days after the thrashing, Tabrez was admitted to Seraikela Sadar Hospital (SSH) where he died the same day.Both sides, the accused and the defence, however, remained dissatisfied with the order and have decided to move higher courts.High court advocate A Allam, who represented Tabrez Ansaris widow, Shaista Parveen in the high court, who was seeking a CBI inquiry into the incident, said it was a clear-cut case of lynching and the accused should have been tried and sentenced for murder.
Tabrez was brutally beaten up by the mob and when his family members went to meet him in the lock-up, they found him debilitated with froth coming out of his mouth.
His death was not due to simple heart failure, it was a case of heart failure linked to severe trauma that he sustained due to brutal thrashing that went on for several hours, he said, adding that they would file a criminal appeal with the higher judiciary.Tabrezs widow, Sahista Parveen, reportedly told media that she would challenge the judgment in the higher court.
She has said the convicts deserved death penalty, 10-year jail term is too less a punishment for the heinous crime of lynching.Similar discontent was also expressed by defence lawyer Subodhchandra Hazra who claimed that Tabrez was not killed by a mob.With all respect to the court of law, we beg to differ with the judgement in this case.
We will definitely go to the higher court for justice.
The medical board report of the deceased Tabrez confirms there was no serious injury to him when he was taken into custody by the police on June 18, 2019, said Hazra.Those sentenced for 10 years include Pappu Mandal alias Prakash Mandal, Premchand Mahali, Chamu Nayak, Sunamo Pradhan, Vikram Mandal, Kamal Mahato, Atul Mahali, Madan Nayak, Mahesh Mahali, and, Bheem Singh Mandal.
The main accused, Pappu Mandal, was in the jail, while the rest were out on bail.Following the conviction on June 27, all accused who were on bail, were taken into custody.
In all, 11 people were accused in the case but one of the accused, Kushal Mahali, was killed in a road accident.Seraikela Kharsawa police had filed the initial chargesheet on July 23, 2019, charging the accused with murder but in the final chargesheet filed in Seraikela court on August 11, the charges were converted to culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304 IPC.The then SP Seraikela Kharsawa Kartick S had said, Based on the scientific report we have converted murder charge (Section 302 IPC) with culpable homicide not amounting to murder (Section 304 IPC) as the medical report concludes he died of cardiac arrest.The police action was met with widespread protests and Tabrezs widow Shaista Parveen on September 16, 2019 threatened self immolation within two days, if the murder charges against the accused were dropped.Within 48 hours of her threatening, Seraikela police issued a non signatured press release on September 18, 2019 stating that two more person namely Vikram Mandal and Atul Mahli have been charge sheeted under section 147, 149, 341, 342, 323, 325, 302 and 295 A of the IPC.The police have submitted a supplementary charge sheet under section 302 along with other sections of IPC against previously accused 11 persons as well, the release dated september 18, 2019 read.Justifying the supplementary charge sheet and reason for using section 302 of IPC in the supplementary charge sheet the release read Earlier the postmortem report was inconclusive about the cause of death and viscera was preserved.
In the report issued by the Forensic Science Laboratory the cause of death was stated to be heart attack but the cause of cardiac arrest was unclear in this report.
In the interest of justice and for successful prosecution, police decided to get a report from the expert medical board of Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) Hospital.
On the basis of the expert medical team of MGM hospital, a supplementary charge sheet under section 302 of IPC was filed.