Jharkhand Police has brought back the murder charges against all accused in Tabrez Ansari lynching case. In the supplementary chargesheet filed at Seraikela-Kharsawan district, the police cited fresh medical report to back the Section 302 charges against the accused. “It is clear that in the previous chargesheet, doctors had reserved their opinion on the cause of death as per post-mortem report received by police. After the viscera report was received, doctors said that death was due to cardiac arrest,” the police said in its statement.
The development comes 8 days after the Jharkhand Police dropped the murder charges against the accused in the lynching case. Tied to a poll, Tabrez Ansari was brutally beaten up by a mob over theft allegations on June 18. The entire torture was captured on camera. The 24-year-old welder was forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Jai Hanuman’. Instead of acting against the accused involved in brutality, the state police slapped theft charges against Tabrez Ansari. Bleeding profusely, Ansari was taken to jail after the doctors declared him ‘fit to travel’. Four days later, Ansari collapsed in jail cell. He was taken to hospital, where he succumb to his injuries.
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.”
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