Eight get life term in 2016 Latehar lynching case

A court in Jharkhand’s Latehar on Friday sentenced eight people to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on each for lynching two cattle herders in March 2016.

Mazlum Ansari (32) and Imteyaz Khan (15) were beaten to death and their bodies hung from a tree in Jharkhand’s Jhabar village by members of a Gau Rakshak Samiti, a voluntary group working for protection of cattle, when the two men were taking eight oxen to a local market in Balumath block for sale.

The court had convicted the eight men – Pramod Saw, Sahdeo Soni, Mithilesh Sahu, Awadhesh Saw, Manoj Saw, Manoj Kumar Saw, Arun Saw and Vishal Tiwari – on Wednesday. Announcing the quantum of punishment, the court of first judicial magistrate Friday also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on each. It said if the convicts failed to pay the fine, they would have to spend an extra year in jail.

Public prosecutor, Balram Sah, told The Indian Express that though they had demanded death sentence for the eight men, “the court thought it was proper to award life sentence based on evidence produced… Records of telephonic conversation among them (the eight convicts) before they lynched the two cattle herders… (indicated that) there was a conspiracy.” The lawyer said that all the eight men had been active members of the cow protection committee.

Earlier in the day, the convicts were brought to the court amid tight security as their supporters shouted slogans, like “Jai Shri Ram”.

After the court’s verdict, victim Mazlum Ansari’s widow, Shaira Bibi, told media that she had “received threats when some accused had come out on bail”. Shaira, who was also a witness in the case, said they had demanded death penalty for the accused, but respected the court’s verdict.
The convicts are likely to appeal against the verdict in a higher court. Defence lawyer Arvind Sah Deo said, “It is part of judicial process. We have options of approaching high court against the lower court verdict.”