Jharkhand: Another case of mob lynching of Muslim man

Once again another case of mob lynching has emerged. This time from Jharkhand where a 30-year-old man named Akhtar Ansari, a father of four, was lynched in Tatisilve, Ranchi. He was reportedly accused of goat theft. The horrific event took place on July 7 when Akhtar’s nephew.

After they got a call from the police, Akhtar’s family saw his unconscious body with severe injuries to his legs and head.

Despite the evidence of a brutal attack, the police dismissed their pleas and have reportedly gone ahead and labelled Akhtar as a thief.

According to Clarion Media, his nephew Sarfaraz had told the media, “This is an incident of mob lynching. There is no issue related to the theft. When I went to the police station, my uncle was accused of theft. This is completely false. There is nothing like theft. No suspicious thing was found with him”

The family also reportedly got a phone call from a number whose name showed ‘Black Panther’. On the call they could hear only the sounds of despair and violence. “When I got the call, I could only hear ‘Maaro, Maaro’. There was so much noise.” A voice on the call also stated that they were going to kill Ansari.

As per a report in The Telegraph, the police have stated that Ansari was beaten by locals because he was stealing goats.

Earlier last week, Jharkhand had seen a similar horrible case of mob lynching where Maulana Shahabuddin, an imam from a mosque, was reportedly beaten to death in the state’s Koderma district.

After West Bengal, Rajasthan and Manipur, Jharkhand is one of the fourth Indian states that had passed an anti-mob lynching law, the law in the state was called “Prevention of Mob Violence and Mob Lynching Bill, 2021”, and granted a jail term of over 3 years as punishment. However, the implementation of the law has been stalled as the bill was returned by the government with objections. The opposition in the state, BJP, opposed the bill. Similarly, a group of tribals also opposed the bill, as per a report in Hindustan Times. A group called Janjati Suraksha Manch met the governor and had urged the government not to pass the bill as it would undermine the rights of the tribals and the special provisions granted to them by the centre.

Similarly, another case of violence has arrived from Shamli, Uttar Pradesh. A Muslim man named Firooz Qureshi was beaten up by three men in the district. He died after reaching home. An FIR regarding culpable homicide not amounting to murder has been registered in the case. Furthermore, the Uttar Pradesh police has registered a case against Muslim journalists Zakir Ali Tiyagi and Wasim Ali Tiyagi, and others, for sharing a post regarding the incident.

This was the tweet in question.

Zakir Ali told the Indian Express, “Shamli Police has registered an FIR against me for reporting the ‘lynching case’. This is not the first time. Even before this I had been attacked five times because of my reporting. Not only me but other journalists too are surprised.”

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