Ranchi, September 10: The Jharkhand Police have dropped murder charges against all accused in a case related to mob lynching of 24-year-old Tabrez Ansari. According to the police, murder charges were dropped because the post-mortem report said Tabrez Ansari died of a cardiac arrest. The police have filed charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against 11 men accused. PM Narendra Modi On Tabrez Ansari's Killing: 'Mob Lynching Pains Me But Don't Insult Jharkhand'.
A mob attacked Ansari in Jharkhand’s Seraikela-Kharswan district on June 17. He was tied to a pole and thrashed for over seven hours on charges of theft before being handed over to police. He was forced to chant 'Jai Shri Ram' and 'Jai Hanuman'. A severely wounded Ansari was taken to a district hospital, which cleared him for jail. Four days later, when his condition deteriorated, he was rushed to another hospital, where the doctors declared him “brought dead”.
"Medical report did not give any supporting evidence for murder so that we charged (the accused) under culpable homicide not amounting to murder which is also equally punishable if not to the extent of murder sections," senior police officer Karthik S was quoted by NDTV as saying. "Once we got the medical report, we asked for the second opinion from a higher level of experts. They also gave same sort of opinion," he added. 'Jharkhand Has Become Factory of Lynching And Violence, PM Modi Still Mute': GN Azad.
Earlier, a three-member probe team, headed by Seraikela-Kharswan Deputy Commissioner Anjaneyulu Dodde, said that negligence on the part of police and doctors' lapses led to the death of Ansari. "The June 17 incident was reported to the police around 1 am, but they took actions only after 6 am,” the inquiry team said. Two police officers have already been suspended in connection with the negligence.
Corroborating Dodde, a civil surgeon who has been transferred to Khunti after the incident, said that X-ray and full-body scan should have been carried out, but the tests were not performed as there was no symptom of brain injury.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 10, 2019 08:21 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).