The lynching of 55-year-old Ansari took place on June 29, 2017, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly spoke against those taking the law into their hands in the name of “gau raksha”.
Nearly nine months after Alimuddin Ansari was lynched by cow vigilantes in Jharkhand, a Ramgarh court on Wednesday awarded life imprisonment for the 11 accused in the case. The development comes a few days after a fast-track court had convicted 11 of the 12 accused, including a district BJP leader and at least three members of the local “gau raksha samiti”.
Prosecution officials had told The Indian Express on March 17 that this was possibly the first case in recent years, when a lynching by gau rakshaks has ended in conviction by a district court. The defence counsel had said they would appeal against the judgment in the Jharkhand High Court.
According to the prosecution, the 12th accused was initially treated as a juvenile. However, it said, it later approached the court seeking his prosecution as an adult as he was over 16 years old. The plea, which is pending, is based on a CrPC amendment that allows minors between 16 and 18 to be treated as adults if it is proved that they were aware of the impact of their actions. READ:
Shahzad Ansari, Alimuddin’s son, had welcomed the conviction and told The Indian Express: “We are very happy with the decision. Those who did this got what they deserved. We hope that the higher courts uphold this decision. We are also happy that the decision has come in a short time.”
The lynching of 55-year-old Ansari took place on June 29, 2017, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly spoke against those taking the law into their hands in the name of “gau raksha”. The Jharkhand government had referred the case to a fast track court under Additional Judge-II, Om Prakash, who held hearings almost on a daily basis.
(With ENS inputs)