By Tuba Ehtesham
New Delhi: Refusing to accept that Tabrez Ansari was lynched with an an intention of murder, a court in Jharkhand sentenced 10 convicts for 10 years in prison.
The court rejected the prosecution’s demand that the 10 men be punished with a life sentence as their beatings led to Ansari’s death on June 22, 2019.
“The court arrived at the conclusion that the motive was not to kill him because he died four days after the assault,” the victim’s counsel, Altaf Hussain, who was assisting the prosecution as an informat lawyer, told MuslimMirror over phone.
He added he would approach the high court against the sentencing awarded by the additional sessions judge, Amit Shekhar.
“The fact that murderers keep beating him up black and blue for hours clearly establishes their intention. It’s unfortunate that the lower court failed to realise that the injuries caused to him led to his death four days later,” he added.
Following a four-year trial, the 10 men — Mahesh Mahali, Prem Chand Mahali, Atul Mahali, Vikram Mandal, Prakash Mandal, Chamu Nayak, Madan Nayak, Sunamo Pradhan, Kamal Mahato and Bhim Singh Munda — were on June 26 found guilty under sections 304 (1) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) apart from sections 295(B) (destroying and damaging a place of place of worship), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, being armed with a deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly) and 325/34 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt with common intention).
While returning from his native place at Kadamdih where he had gone to meet his aunt, the 24-year-old — a resident of Seraikela-Kharsawan district — was stopped by a mob at around 10 pm on June 17, 2019 at Jamshedpur’s Dhatkidih locality in East Singhbhum and brutally assaulted for around eight hours on the allegation of being involved in a bike theft.
As his accomplices somehow managed to flee, he was caught and tied to an electric pole and mercilessly beaten up. The murderous mob also made him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Jai Hanuman’.
Despite getting information as the assault had begun, the police reached the spot the next day at around 7:30 am — a delay of over nine hours.
A video showing Ansari being forced to chant Hindu religious slogans while pleading for his life had gone viral and led to a huge outrage in India.
His family alleged that police denied him treatment despite his injuries. He was rushed to a primary healthcare centre (PHC) where he was administered just first-aid. After he was discharged, he was arrested for alleged theft and sent to jail.
The state police denied any wrongdoing.
On June 22, 2019, Ansari complained of nausea, vomiting and chest pain and was transferred to a hospital but he died of injuries sustained during the attack.
The police had been criticised initially for not invoking the more stringent murder charge. Later, they did invoke murder charges against all the accused in a supplementary charge sheet.
Commenting on the quantum of punishment, the deceased wife, Shaista Perween, the conviction was “just an eyewash”.
“Is it not a mockery of justice that a healthy man is mercilessly thrashed by a mob, leading to his death, but the later gets 10 years in jail as the court is of the view that the intention of the assaulters was not to commit murder?” she asked.
Adding that she will approach the higher judiciary until it is assured that justice has been done, she reiterated nothing less than that the death sentence for the killers of her husband is acceptable to her.
A welder by profession who was employed at Pune in Maharashtra, Ansari had returned home for his marriage — which was solemnised on April 26, 2019, just two months before he was killed.
Ansari’s lynching by a Hindu mob was not an isolated incident – there have been several similar incidents reported in India in recent years where Muslims have been attacked by so-called “cow vigilantes” over rumours that they had eaten beef, or that they were trying to smuggle cows – an animal many Hindus consider holy – for slaughter. Cow slaughter is illegal in many Indian states.
Hate crime trackers suggest that anti-Muslim violence has risen since 2014 under the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.