Murder Charge against accused back in Tabrez Ansari lynching case: Jharkhand

In a statement, seen as a turnaround following the sharp all-around criticism, the Jharkhand Police said that in the first chargesheet, “opinion on the cause of death” was kept “reserved” in the viscera report. Widespread criticism had followed the earlier diluted charge sheet in the case 

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Only a few days after the Jharkhand Police’s decision to drop the murder charge against 13 men accused of lynching Tabrez Ansari drew widespread outrage, the Sarikela-Kharsawan police on September 18, invoked the murder charge against all the accused in a supplementary chargesheet filed in the court, citing a fresh medical report. 

Following this move, the Jharkhand Police issued a statement. The Jharkhand Police said stared that in the first chargesheet, “opinion on the cause of death” was kept “reserved” in the viscera report. Justifying the belated inclusion of the murder charge under Section 302 of the IPC, police said they had “additional evidence” like the opinion sought from a second medical board of directors, which opined that Ansari’s death was due to the combined effect of “injury and cardiac arrest” and that the video was not tampered with.

 

Tabrez Ansari (22) was a velder,  accused of theft by a mob in Dhatkidih village of Sarikela-Kharsawan on June 18. He died a brutal death. He was tied to a pole and forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram, Jai Hanuman”. Ironically, the police later arrested Ansari and booked him on theft charges while doctors at the Sadar Hospital declared him “fit for travel”. It was four days later that Ansari died while being rushed to hospital after he collapsed inside jail.The first charge sheet had dropped the murder charges against the accused. Instead, Section 304 if the IPC had been invoked (culpable homicide not amounting to murder). Shockingly, the then SP Saraikela Karthik had gone on record stating that the viscera report did not “point to anything conclusive” and that the murder was not premeditated. Now, the police statement on  Wednesday said: “It is clear that in the previous chargesheet, doctors had reserved their opinion on the cause of death as per post mortem report received by police. After the viscera report was received, doctors said that death was due to cardiac arrest.”

The statement said that since the cause of cardiac arrest was not clear, police sent the entire report to a board of doctors at MGM Hospital. The doctors opined: “The fracture of bone is grievous injury caused by hard and blunt object. The combined effect of fracture of bones, pale organs and heart chambers full of blood resulted in cardiac arrest.”

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