Jharkhand HC seeks report on lynching

At some point, the demonstration turned violent with the protesters going on rampage, smashing vehicles and trying to set alight a bus carrying students of a technical institute.

The Jharkhand high court on Monday sought a detailed report from the state government on the lynching of a Muslim man by a mob last month.

Lynching victim Tabrez Ansari’s uncle Maulana Masroor Alam (with black turban) in Kadamdiha village.(Manoj Kumar/Hindustan Times)

A division bench of justices Harish Chandra Mishra and Deepak Roshan also sought a report from the Ranchi senior superintendent of police (SSP) on violence in Ranchi during an agitation to protest the death of 24-year-old Tabrez Alam Ansari. Eleven people have been arrested in the lynching case.

The court observed that the fallout of the incident is serious.

To protest the lynching incident, thousands of Muslims took to streets of the state capital Ranchi on July 5 without the permission of the district authorities.

At some point, the demonstration turned violent with the protesters going on rampage, smashing vehicles and trying to set alight a bus carrying students of a technical institute. They also stabbed a man and brutally thrashed another. No arrests have been made so far despite the police having CCTV footage of the incident.

The high court bench asked the authorities to furnish their detailed reports by July 17, the next date of hearing.

The court’s order came on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Pankaj Kumar Yadav, a resident of Daltongunj in Palamu district, seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the alleged mob lynching of Ansari in Saraikela-Kharsawan district last month.

Ansari, accused of attempted burglary at Dhatkidih village under Saraikela police station in the intervening night of June 17-18, was beaten up by an angry mob and later handed over to the police. He died four days later.

The petitioner also sought a direction to CBI to investigate the role of police officials, whom he accused of not providing proper medical treatment to Ansari.

Addressing the Rajya Sabha on June 26, PM Narendra Modi said blaming the entire state for the death was not right; he was responding to the Opposition’s allegation that Jharkhand had turned into a “lynching factory”.

“Death of youth in mob lynching is sad, culprits will be punished but blaming entire Jharkhand for it is not right,” he said.