Mahto likely to get relief in 2016 arson, death of cop

Sindri: State education minister Jagarnath Mahto is all set to be exonerated from the case related to unlawful assembly, assault and arson lodged at Nawadih police station of Bokaro district in 2016 after the district administration recommended withdrawal of the case following a no objection report by the Public Prosecutor (PP) of Dhanbad.
In 2016, after the the Raghudar Das government introduced the state residents policy which gave domicile status to anybody staying in Jharkhand for the past 30 years, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and other tribal parties opposed the government’s move. In once such protest, Mahto was allegedly leading a torchlight procession which gheraoed Nawadih police station by transgressing prohibitory orders in the area. The protesters had also burnt tyres at the police station and officer in-charge P S Ramchandra Ram fell unconcious due to the fumes and later died at the hospital.
Talking to TOI, Dhanbad PP B D Pandey said, “The Jharkhand high court expunged Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 328 (stupefying, intoxicating with intent to cause hurt) of the IPC from the case and since there was no damage to public property, the case is left with sections that come under compoundable offences where the complainant can enter into a compromise and agree to drop the charges against the accused.” The court expunged the sections as police failed to substantiate the allegations.
Pandey added, “Based on this, we submitted our no objection report and now it is up to the state government to take a decision in this regard.”