Ramgarh: A Special Fast Track court in Jharkhand on March 21 awarded life imprisonment to 11 persons accused of lying a meat trader in the eastern Indian state.
The court in Ramgarh, more than 45 km north of the state capital of Ranchi, deferred its decision on the 12th convict, said to be a juvenile.
The 12 were accused of lynching Alimuddin Ansari alias Asgar Ali for allegedly transporting meat in his vehicle on June 29, 2017.
Earlier on March 16, the court of the additional district judge-II of Ramgarh Om Prakash held all the accused guilty under various sections of Indian Penal Code, including 302 (murder).
This is the first conviction in a lynching case in the country, The Hindu newspaper reported.
A Reuters report in June 2017, cited a data journalism website, to estimate that 28 Indians, 24 of them Muslims, getting killed and 124 injured since 2010 in cow-related violence.
The Jharkhand government had requested the state High Court to set up a special fast track court for a speedy trial of the case. The district police had filed the charge sheet in September last year and the trial was completed in less than six months.
“Besides, sentencing them for life term the court has also slapped a fine of 2,000 on each the accused,” said additional public prosecutor Sushil Kumar Shukla.
The court also directed the district services legal authority to initiate proceedings for ensuring adequate compensation to the victim’s family.
Speaking to journalists, Shukla said this was the first case of cow vigilantism in the country where the accused persons have been convicted and punished.
The accused persons said they would appeal the verdict in a higher court.
Alimuddin Ansari, 55, who was transporting meat in his van from Chitarpur area of Ramgarh, was attacked by alleged followers of a gau raksha samiti (cow vigilante outfit). The group intercepted him near a gas agency at Bazartand area under Ramgarh Police Station area and set his van on fire before lynching him in public. A video of the incident later went viral on social media and private news channels.
The court has forwarded its order to the district legal services authority, so it can initiate steps to compensate the victim’s family.
The victim’s wife, Mariam Khatun, welcomed the judgment. “The death of my husband came as an irreparable loss. The accused deserved nothing less,” she said.
The lynching occurred just hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned against such attacks by vigilante group, saying the killing of people in the name of protecting cows was unacceptable.
Similar cases of cow vigilante violence — including the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq in Uttar Pradesh’s Dadri in 2015 and that of Pehlu Khan in Rajasthan’s Alwar in 2017 — remain at the trial stage.