NOIDA: The legal system took less than a year, 266 days to be precise, to bring the killers of Jharkhand meat trader Alimuddin Ansari to book. In Dadri, meanwhile, it’s been 906 days since
Mohammad Akhlaq was murdered but his family is still waiting for the trial to begin.
Two cases of
lynching, both committed by mobs in the name of protecting cows, have panned out very differently in two Indian states. A fast-track court in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh district awarded 11 people life imprisonment on March 21 for the killing of 55-year-old Ansari, a landmark verdict because it was the first in a case connected to violence by vigilante groups in the name of ‘gau raksha’.
Ansari was killed on June 29 last year. But the mob murder that shook the country two years before that, when Akhlaq was lynched in his house by a mob that was driven by rumours that he had eaten and stored beef, hasn’t even gone to trial. Of the 18 accused in the case, one has died, and the 17 others are out on bail. The Akhlaq case is also being heard by a fast-track court, in Greater Noida.
Akhlaq (58) was beaten to death in Dadri’s Bisada village on the night of September 28, 2015. His son Danish also received grievous injuries but survived after a couple of brain surgeries.
“We know justice delayed is justice denied,” Danish told TOI on Thursday. Akhlaq’s family moved out of Bisada after the attack and now lives in Delhi. “We feel the state has not pursued the case seriously, unlike the Jharkhand government,” he added. Danish said the family was still hopeful that justice would be delivered.
Yusuf Saifi, lawyer for Akhlaq’s family, said 35 hearings have so far taken place.
“The defence lawyers are obstructing framing of charges. Almost in all hearings, they have moved one application or another before court and objected to charges slapped on the accused. That is how the framing of charges has been deferred,” he said. The next hearing is scheduled on April 23.
Diljit Singh Ahluwalia, a Delhi-based lawyer, expressed surprise the trial in such a case had not even started, that too in a fast-track court. He said the Criminal Procedure Code mandates day-to-day trials in all cases.
“In cases where this is not possible, the trial court has to give reasons in writing for not being able to do so. Although the law does not stipulate a fixed time for concluding a trial, fast-track courts have been formed for conducting speedy trials, and dismissing with costs any frivolous and vexatious applications by any party,” Ahluwalia said.
Akhlaq and Danish were attacked a few days after Eid celebrations in Bisada. Police filed a 181-page document (4-page chargesheet and 177-page case diary) 84 days after the murder. Ravin, one of the accused, died in judicial custody in October 2016 due to a prolonged illness.
Representative image
