New Delhi:
The Jharkhand High Court on Tuesday granted bail to six people arrested in connection with the lynching of Tabrez Ansari in June. Justice R Mukhopadhyay granted bail to the six after their advocate A K Sahani informed the court that neither their names were mentioned in the FIR registered in connection with the death of Ansari nor the main accused Papu Mandal had implicated them during interrogation by the police.
The advocate told the court that the six—Bhimsen Mandal, Chamu Nayak, Mahesh Mahali, Satyanarayan Nayak, Madan Nayak and Vikram Mandal—had been in jail since June 25.
The police had on September 10 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 Indian Penal Code) on the basis of postmortem, medical and forensic reports which said 24-year-old Ansari died of cardiac arrest. While the quantum of punishment under Section 302 is death or imprisonment for life and fine, the penalty under Section 304 is imprisonment for life or imprisonment for 10 years or fine or both.
Defending its action on dropping murder charges, Saraikela-Kharsawan SP Karthik S had said, “We filed a chargesheet under IPC section 304 because of two reasons. One, he did not die at the spot… the villagers did not have any intent to kill Ansari. Second, the medical report did not substantiate the murder charge. The final post-mortem report said Ansari died due to cardiac arrest and that a haemorrhage in the head was not fatal. The second medical opinion said the cause of death was a combination of cardiac arrest and the head injury.”
Ansari was thrashed by a mob on June 17 at Dhatkidih village in Seraikela-Kharsawan district when he and two of his associates allegedly tried to enter a house with an intention to commit theft, a senior police officer had said then.
The police reached the spot the next morning and took Ansari to jail on the basis of a complaint lodged by the villagers, the police officer said.
When Ansari’s condition deteriorated in jail, he was taken to the sadar hospital in Seraikela-Kharsawan where he was diagnosed with multiple injuries, he said.
Later, he was referred to the Tata Main Hospital in Jamshedpur where he died on June 22, the police officer said.
