Minister of State for Home G. Kishan Reddy on Thursday said incidents of lynching were unfortunate and that the Centre would speak to the Jharkhand government on dropping of murder charges against suspects in the Tabrez Ansari lynching case.
While speaking to reporters in Delhi at the Bureau of Police Research and Development headquarters, he said, “I do not know what happened in the courts....but those behind the criminal activity should be punished. We will speak to the State government. All governments should stop lynching. It is not that lynching is happening only in BJP-ruled States; it happened in West Bengal too. The Prime Minister has also spoken against it.”
Eleven persons, against whom charge sheets have been filed for beating Tabrez, a 24-year-old man, to death, will be facing trial under Section 304 of IPC, which is culpable homicide not amounting to murder instead of murder charges under Section 302.
In April, Tabrez, who was working as a welder in Pune, returned to his village Kadamdia, 15 km from the district headquarters town of Seraikela, for his marriage. On April 27, his marriage was solemnised with Sahista Pervez, 19. The couple would have returned to Pune in a few days.
However, late on June 17, a few people of Dhatkidih village, a few kilometres from his house, caught hold of him and branded him a thief. He was beaten up by a mob and forced to chant ‘Jai Hanuman and Jai Sriram’. On June 22, he succumbed to injuries.
