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‘Blot on humanity’: Rahul pans ‘powerful voices’ at Centre over mob killing
Tabrez Alam died on June 22 at Seraikela Sadar Hospital, four days after he was beaten up by villagers of Dhatkidih for alleged theft and forced to chant ‘Jai Sri Ram’ and ‘Jai Hanuman’ in an area under Seraikela police station in Seraikela-Kharsawan district near Jamshedpur.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday termed the alleged lynching of a 24-year-old man in Jharkhand a “blot on humanity” and said the “silence” of powerful voices in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled central and state governments over the incident is shocking.
Tabrez Ansari was thrashed by a mob for alleged theft on June 18 and a video had emerged which purportedly showed that he was forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram” and “Jai Hanuman” in Jharkhand’s Saraikela Kharsawan.
He was declared “brought dead” by doctors at the Tata Main Hospital in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand on Saturday.
“The brutal lynching of this young man by a mob in Jharkhand is a blot on humanity. The cruelty of the police who held this dying boy in custody for 4 days is shocking as is the silence of powerful voices in the BJP-ruled central and state governments,” Gandhi tweeted, along with a still from the video of the incident.
The Congress president used the hashtag ‘India Against Lynch Terror’ with his tweet.
Eleven people have been arrested in connection with Ansari’s death and a special investigation team (SIT) has been set up to look into the matter.
The BJP, for its part, accused the Congress and other Opposition parties of politicising the incident. “The Raghubar Das government has zero tolerance on such incidents. No sooner had the incident came to light, the (district) superintendent of police suspended the two police personnel on direction of the government,” BJP state spokesperson Pratul Shah Deo said in a statement.
Deo said 11 people had already been arrested in connection with the case and a SIT was probing the incident, adding that the process of identifying the remaining accused was on through a video footage.
“The Raghubar Das government does not discriminate anyone on caste or religion. Everyone is being developed and whoever might be the guilty will not be spared,” Deo said.
“The Opposition (parties’) governments (in other states) should also take the same lesson, particularly the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal where people chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ are being beaten up and BJP workers are being killed,” he said.
