Tag: mob lynching

Mob lynching in Jharkhand: Mubarak becomes latest victims of lynchings.

Source – enewsroom.in

Ranchi: Mubarak Ansari, 48, becomes 22nd mob lynching victims in Jharkhand. While Akhtar Ansari, 26, has managed to live on, despite receiving serious injuries from a mob thrashing. He  is undergoing treatment in a hospital in Bokaro district of Jharkhand.

Mubarak and Akhtar were accused of stealing a battery from a truck in Govindpur colony of Bokaro. The two accused hail from a village closeby. On Nov 5, the duo was intercepted by the owners, in Govindpur, when the they were allegedly whisking away a truck battery. Following which the owners invited many more resident, who tied Mubarak to a pole and began to mercilessly beat the two.

“We were mercilessly beaten from midnight to early morning of Nov 6. Only when some villagers of my village crossed by and identified us, that they called our village Sadar (local committee president), who informed the police,” said Akhtar in written complaint to the police.  Akhtar, is at present undergoing treatment,  also mentioned in the FIR that Mubarak succumbed to the injuries that he sustained due to mob lynching.

Like other lynching case, in this case too, the entire episode of Mubarak and Akhtar being lynched was recorded on camera. Female voices could also be heard inciting the mob and also demanding for a compensation.

Bokaro police has arrested four accused in this lynching case. Interestingly, in this case one of the arrested accused is a woman, who has been named in the FIR lodged by Akhtar.

The lynching of Mubarak is the latest one in the long list of at least 22 victims of lynching cases that has taken place in Jharkhand under Raghubar Das led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. People have been lynched sometimes on the basis of alleged stealing charges, sometimes for transporting beef and cows and sometimes for child lifting or theft. And mostly Muslims or members from the scheduled tribe (tribals) and scheduled caste (dalits) have been victims of these heinous crimes that have been taking place in Jharkhand, over these three years.

A recent case of Tabrez Ansari was highlighted across the world and the issue was even raised in United States and in its Security Council.

However, only in two cases (Alimuddin Ansari of Ramgarh and Mazloom Ansari of Latehar), conviction of the accused took place at the lower courts.

While it is well known to every that killers of Alimuddin are on bail now and have even been felicitated by the Hazaribagh MP Jayant Sinha.

Meat-chop lynching in Jharkhand

Source: telegraphindia.com

A man was lynched and two others were injured on Sunday by a Jharkhand mob that accused them of cow slaughter.

Police sources said a crowd had attacked Kalantus Barla, Philip Horo and Phagu Kachchap in Jaltand Suari village, Khunti district, after word spread that the trio had been seen chopping meat, with the remains of a cow strewn around them.

Cow slaughter and beef sale are banned in Jharkhand, which has emerged as a lynching hotbed, accounting for 17 of the 44 deaths the country witnessed at the hands of mobs between May 2015 and December 2018. Most of the lynchings in the state were related to suspected cow slaughter or beef possession.

“As soon as the local police learnt about the attack, they rushed to the spot and rescued the trio. They were brought to the local hospital, from where they were sent to RIMS, Ranchi,” an officer in Khunti said.

“Seven people have been detained for questioning. An FIR will be lodged,” A.V. Homkar, deputy inspector-general of police, South Chhotanagpur, said.

He added: “Preliminary investigation suggests the three men were selling prohibited meat. They were caught by the mob and thrashed. Additional police forces have been deployed.”

Vivek Kashyap, RIMS superintendent, said Barla, 38, had been dead on arrival and that the post-mortem report would establish the cause of death. He said both Horo and Kachchap had multiple injuries, without elaborating.

Khunti police sources said the village was tense.

The lynching trend has continued in Jharkhand this year, with a mob killing Tabrez Ansari, 24, on suspicion of theft at Dhatkidih village in Seraikela in June.

Footage suggests the mob forced him to chant “Jai Shri Ram” and “Jai Hanuman”.

The police, who recently filed the chargesheet in the case, have reinstated the murder charges against the 13 accused after having dropped them.

70-year-old Jharkhand’s man lynched on child-lifting suspicions

Source: hindustantimes.com

A septuagenarian man was beaten to death by a mob on suspicion of being child lifter in Jharkhand’s Sahibganj district, police said on Thursday.

The police, however, are yet to identify the victim, whose body has been sent for autopsy.

“We have lodged an FIR against unknown persons today and started probe,” said Sahibganj superintendent police (SP) Hrudeep P Janardhanan.

The incident took place in remote Kuchi Pahari area under Mirzachoki police station, around 440 km northeast of capital Ranchi, on Wednesday afternoon when the 70-year-old man went collect herbs from hilly place.

“I think the old man, who was looking very poor, died due to panic on way to hospital after being beaten by villagers. We found minor injury marks seen on his body. The autopsy report will reveal the actual cause of the death,” he said.

Sahibganj sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Nawal Sharma said, “The old man went to collect herbs from a hilly place. While retuning, few villagers suspected him as child lifter. They thrashed him at Kuchi Pahari village.”

After hearing this, the village head Sunny Pahariya rushed to the place and rescued him from the mob, Sharma said.

“The old man was being brought to Mirzachoki health centre. He was able to walk on his feet at that time. But, all of a sudden, he fell and died,” Sharma said.

During interrogation, some villagers told the police that the man was often spotted in the area, going to the hill to collect herbs.

The SP said they have been spreading awareness villages to counter child lifting rumours. “Since most of them belonged to Pahariya tribe in the tribal villages, they hardly understand Hindi. We have involved village heads and other people to spread awareness in this regard in villages,” he said.

In another incident, an elderly person was tied to an electric pole and thrashed by villagers on suspicion of being child lifter at Belbad village in Deoghar district on Wednesday. In Ranchi, a mentally disordered woman was beaten calling her child lifter. However, both of them were rescued by police in time.

Mob lynching on suspicions of child lifting has become common in Jharkhand, where the administration has been issuing public notice, warning rumour-mongers of stringent legal action. The Ranchi district administration recently issued such a notice which says, “Spreading rumour of child lifting is becoming a common affair. Punishing or physically torturing any person by any mob is a legal offence. Such people in the mob will be identified and legal action will be taken against them.”

39 Mob Lynching Incidents Reported In Less Than 3 Months In Bihar: Police

Source: ndtv.com

PATNA: 

The police in Bihar have seen a rising number of lynching incidents in the recent months. According to data provided by the police headquarters, 14 people have been beaten to death, while 45 people have been injured in mob lynching incidents during the last two and a half months. During this time, 39 incidents of mob-lynching were registered in the state.

Bihar police headquarters is conducting awareness campaigns regarding such incidents in sensitive areas. Senior police officials have acknowledged that there have been no incidents of child abduction but people take to mob-lynching due to rumours. However, the police are sensitising people about such incidents along with a stern warning to those involved in the lynchings.

Locals in Madipur Chitragupta Nagar in Muzaffarpur thrashed two women on suspicion of child abduction. By the time the police reached the spot and saved them from the crowd, they had both suffered severe injuries.

In Samastipur district, a mentally-disabled woman was beaten up on a similar suspicion. Some people from the crowd saved her from the mob.

Such cases have been reported from Patna as well as other areas of the state too.

A man, identified as Shatrughan Sinha, a resident of Sitamarhi, was beaten to death on September 9 in West Champaran district.

On September 8, a 22-year-old man was beaten to death following rumours of child lifting.

The police have registered FIRs against 348 named accused and 4,000 unidentified people till now.

“Police is taking strict action against those involved in mob lynching incidents. We identify the accused from the video footage of the incidents and take action against them,” said Additional Director General (police headquarters) Jitendra Kumar .

Referring to the data, he said that since July this year, 278 people have been arrested in 39 incidents of lynching.

Mr Kumar said that the police have launched campaigns against mob lynching using audio clips and posters.

Three months after mob lynching victim’s death, Jharkhand police admit their failings in chargesheet

Source: scroll.in

More than three months after a 55-year-old Christian tribal was lynched in Jharkhand’s Jurmu village by a mob of Hindu villagers for carving an ox, the local Gumla district police’s chargesheet in the case has revealed new evidence pointing to police apathy.

Testimonies of three Christian tribals injured in the attack reveal that the police ignored the victims of the mob attack for more than an hour-and-a-half as they lay on a street outside the police station, where the accused had allegedly dumped them after a four-hour assault.

It has now come to light that instead of rushing them to a medical facility, police officials only offered shawls to the severely injured victims. When the victims were finally ferried to a nearby primary healthcare centre, one of them, Prakash Lakda, was declared dead on arrival. The police had earlier denied allegations of delay.

FactChecker, in June, reported how the police investigations into many of such crimes in Jharkhand were marked by callousness and partisan behaviour, often leading to fatal consequences.

Police apathy

This also proved to be the case in the state’s latest hate crime on June 17 – the lynching of 24-year-old Tabrez Ansari, in which the victim, after 18 hours of assault by a mob, was taken to police custody instead of a hospital. Four days later, he was found unconscious in jail and was soon dead.

In Lakda’s case, the chargesheet, which has also pressed charges against the accused under the stringent Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, was filed earlier this month by the Gumla police.

Lawyers representing the victims say their testimonies in the chargesheet are proof that the police’s apathy led to Lakda’s death. Speaking to FactChecker, Gumla Superintendent of Police Anjani Kumar Jha admitted to the negligence and said that two police officials had been suspended for a month and departmental proceedings had been initiated against them.

The police has, so far, arrested seven of the 12 named accused – dozens of unnamed persons are also accused in the case.

But even as the Gumla police fight these allegations, they continue to press charges of cow slaughter against the victims, based on a complaint by those accused in the lynching.

On June 17, the district court of Gumla rejected the victims’ application for anticipatory bail – to shield them from arrest – after the state government’s public prosecutor alleged that the accused had slaughtered the ox for its meat. In the chargesheet, the accused, as well as other witnesses, have maintained that the ox was long dead before it was carved.

Jharkhand is the second deadliest state for hate crimes fuelled by religious bias, having reported 15 that are included in Hate Crime Watch, a FactChecker database that tracks such crimes. Jharkhand is considered a stronghold of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party – the party is in its second consecutive term at the Centre and has governed Jharkhand since 2014, too. In this year’s national elections, it won 12 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state along with an ally.

‘Let’s kill them’

Describing the assault, 40-year-old Janerius Minj, one of the four tribals who was attacked by the mob, in his testimony to the police has said that on April 10, a mob of 30-40 people approached them from the direction of Jairagi village while they were carving a dead ox.

“All of them had sticks and rods in their hands and surrounded us,” he said. “Most of the 20-30 people from Jurmu escaped so they picked on the four of us and started assaulting us. They kept saying, ‘Let’s kill these people.’”

Minj has identified 12 people who he says played a leading role in the attack that lasted at least two-and-a-half hours. The mob then paraded the four through the village, forcing them to chant Jai Shri Ram slogans, in a pattern repeated in mob attacks across the country in recent weeks. “Whoever did not, was assaulted by the mob,” he said.

Then, Minj said, main accused Sanjay Sahu and Padu Sahu went to the local Dumri police station and came back in 30 minutes. “They arranged a bus, but Lakda was so badly beaten that he couldn’t even stand, nor could he get onto the bus, “he said in his testimony to the police, recorded on April 11, the day after the lynching. “So, Sahu and his men just dragged him into the bus and put him on the floor, at the back of the bus.”

At the end of the 19-km journey, the victims were left outside the Dumri police station. “They dumped Lakda at one spot and the rest of us three in another,” Minj said.

With the victims lying right outside the police station, police officials came out to check on them. “We were writhing in pain and could barely talk,” Minj said. “The police came, asked us what happened and asked us our names. We told them everything and told them that we felt very cold out there. So, they came back with shawls and lit a fire next to us before heading back into the police station.”

Minj, Lakda and two other victims – Peter Kerketta and Belesius Tirkey – lay there on the street for over 90 minutes, until a police vehicle took them to a nearby primary healthcare centre.

But the delay proved fatal for Lakda, who was declared dead on arrival.

Paraded through village

For Sanjay Sahu, the 48-year-old main accused in the lynching, the violence was justified.

In his confessional statement, Sahu, out on bail in a 2013 murder case, said that a mob of 60-odd people from his village, carrying sticks and rods, had rounded up the tribal villagers of Jurmu and assaulted four of them because what the victims were doing was “galat karya” or a misdeed.

“Some passersby told us that a group of people were carving a cow/ox and distributing its meat amongst themselves,” he said. “When we found out more, we realised that tribals from Jurmu including Lakda, Peter and others were carrying out this wrong act.”

Sahu’s testimony also reveals how the tribals suffered more assault when they were paraded through the village. “They had sustained many injuries… Then, we paraded them through the village, while chanting village slogans,” his testimony said. “Whoever saw them, came and assaulted them.”

At the hearings, the prosecution alleged that the three, along with 20-25 others, had “slaughtered the ox into pieces”. Advocate Shadab Ansari, representing the victims, however, said the police ignored its own chargesheet that said ox was already dead.

‘Poor evidence gathering’

Ansari, who is representing the three victims in the Jharkhand High Court, told FactCheckerthe police should have done more to bolster the case against the accused. “The entire chargesheet is based on victim and eyewitness testimonies,” he said. “But, there has been barely any investigation by the police to find evidence that corroborates and supports the testimonies.”

Listing out tactical errors in the police’s handling, Ansari said the police failed to record statements of victims and eyewitnesses before a magistrate, making it inadmissible as evidence in court. “The police did not even give the victims breathing space and went on to record their statements, a few hours after the attack,” Ansari said. “The victims were still under trauma and were intimidated by the fact that the police had filed a case against them for cow slaughter.”

An internal inquiry had revealed deficiencies in the police functioning on the night of the lynching, Gumla’s SP Jha said. “There was delay in attending to the victims and rushing them to the hospital,” he said. “Hence, we placed two officials, who were on duty that night, on suspension for a month. Their fate will be decided by departmental proceedings, currently underway.”

Kunal Purohit isan independent journalist and an alumnus of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, who writes on development, gender, right-wing politics and the intersections between them.

Bihar assembly sees uproar as 5 lynched in 4 days

Source: dnaindia.com

Five people were killed in a spate of mob lynchings in four days in Bihar. Recently, there has been a rise in cases of mob violence in the state, raising questions about law and order. The latest incidents were reported from Chhapra and Vaishali districts.

The first incident took place on Thursday, July 18 in Chhapra when enraged villagers beat three thieves to death. Apparently, all three were known for stealing cattle from the villagers. The father of one of the victims has demanded rigorous punishment for the accused. The police have taken cognisance of the matter and taken eight people in custody.

Subsequently, three incidents took place on Friday, July 19, in Vaishali and Bhojpur. In two separate incidents in Vaishali, villagers brutally thrashed a robber while he was trying to flee after looting a bank.

Another incident happened on Sunday, July 21, when a mob of angry villagers attacked and killed a youth. According to the villagers, the young man was punished for murdering a girl. The situation in all these villages remained tense as on Monday.

Meanwhile, the opposition attacked the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) government over the “deteriorating” law and order in the state. Leaders belonging to RJD demanded an answer from the government, while BJP legislator Jeevesh Mishra said, “The people of Bihar are taking law in their hands out of frustration. However, this is not right. They should hand over the accused to the police.” He also said that the state will have to take necessary steps.

Jharkhand: Over 500 Muslims defy Sec 144 in Ramgarh to protest against mob lynching

Source: dnaindia.com

A group of over 500 people belonging to the Muslim community gathered in a school in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh on Monday to protest against the rising incidents of mob lynchings plaguing their community even amid prohibitory orders issued by the Ramgarh district administration, the Times of India (TOI) reported.

The group, under the banner of the Mutheda Muslim Mahaj, met at Chitrarpur High School just off the National Highway 23 in Gola Road area, to voice their grievances regarding violence against their community. They had earlier sought permission from the district administration for a demonstration rally, which was at first granted but cancelled later on keeping in mind the incidents of violence that are increasingly being associated with anti-mob lynching rallies in the state, the report said.

For a bit of context, a joint group of Muslim organisations had taken out a similar anti-mob lynching rally in state capital Ranchi on Friday but it ended with the group vandalising a Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP) bus in protest demonstrations, according to a Hindustan Times (HT) report. The rally had been taken out specifically in protest of the lynching of Tabrez Ansari in Jharkhand’s Seraikela Kharsawan district on June 18.

In light of this, the Ramgarh district administration, fearing disturbance centering around the rally, had on Sunday cancelled the permission for the rally and also issued prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) that barred all unlawful assembly along the proposed route of the demonstration.

According to reports, even though the rally did not happen, hundreds of Muslims still gathered at the Chitrarpur High School to carry out their protest demonstrations, which, being an unlawful assembly, is also in violation of the prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC.  

The district administration at Ramgarh in Jharkhand said it will take legal action in response to the incident on Monday.

TOI quoted Ramgarh Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) Anant Kumar as saying, “What they (outfit) did was in defiance of the prohibitory orders and we would initiate lawful action against them now.”

On the other hand, the secretary of the Muslim outfit who led the protest demonstrations on Monday, Ahmad Khan, reportedly claimed that even though the permission for the rally had been denied, they had received police permission for a meeting after request on Sunday night.  Ramgarh Superintendent of Police (SP) Prabhat Kumar denied this claim, saying “no such permissions were issued,” according to the HT report.

The report further said that the Chief Speaker at the Muslim gathering, Sahjada Anwar, clarified the purpose behind the demonstration. The Supreme Court had issued directives to every state, including Jharkhand, to the Home Secretary and Director General of Police (DGP) to review mob lynching cases every three months and constitute a task force to look into such cases. “However, nothing of that sort has been done in Jharkhand,” HT quoted an aggrieved Anwar.

Won’t Tolerate Mob Lynching or Any Crime: Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das

Source: thewire.in

Ranchi: Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das has asserted that there will be no discrimination based on caste or religion while dealing with those involved in mob lynching or other crimes and anarchy won’t be tolerated.

Talking about the recent lynching of Muslim youth, accused of stealing a motorcycle in Saraikela Kharsawan district, he said, “My government strongly condemns this incident. Our commitment is to punish criminals… Jharkhand is the only state in the country where such cases are taken up on a fast-track basis with quick punishment to the guilty.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had last month said in Rajya Sabha that this lynching incident pained him and the guilty should get the severest punishment. He, however, said that for this incident, the entire state should not be pronounced guilty and everyone put in the dock.

Tabrez Ansari was beaten up by a mob, and a video showed that he was purportedly made to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Jai Hanuman’. He later died.

Das urged people to refrain from taking law in their hands and expressed his government’s commitment to “punish the criminals” irrespective of caste or the religion.

He also lashed out at the opposition for “giving a communal colour” to stray incidents and said things should not be blown out of proportion and “the government or any particular political party should not be blamed for such incidents”.

“It is a matter of great sadness that the opposition starts playing politics on such issues”, he said.

“Be it this kind of crime or any crime, my government will not tolerate any anarchy… There will be no discrimination in punishing criminals… the colour of blood is the same. Our motto is to ensure communal harmony, peace and brotherhood,” Das told PTI in an interview.

He said his government has constituted a special investigation team to probe the incident and eleven people have been arrested, and two police officers suspended.

According to him, there had been lynching cases during Congress regime too, but this is the first time that action against the guilty is being taken through fast-track courts in Jharkhand.

Das said that Jharkhand has followed Supreme Court guidelines fully in this regard.

The apex court had in 2018 said that “horrendous acts of mobocracy” cannot be allowed to overrun the law of the land and issued a slew of guidelines to deal with mob lynching and cow vigilantism, besides asking the centre to consider enacting a new law to deal with such cases sternly.

It had asked the state governments to designate a senior police officer, not below the rank of superintendent of police, as nodal officer in each district to take steps to prevent incidents of mob violence and lynching.

Modi, in his speech, had objected to some people calling Jharkhand a hub of lynching.

“Is this fair? Why are they insulting a state? None of us have the right to insult the state of Jharkhand,” he had said and referred to violence in states ruled by opposition parties.

“All kinds of violence, whether in Jharkhand or West Bengal or Kerala, should be treated as same and law, should take its course,” he had said.

On June 24, leader of the opposition in the upper house Ghulam Nabi Azad had said that Jharkhand has become a lynching factory where Muslims and Dalits were lynched and attacked every week.

Last year, a fast track court in Jharkhand had convicted eleven people for lynching a meat trader in June 2017 over the suspicion that he was carrying beef in his car.

Tabrez lynching: Police issue alert on fake posts

Source: hindustantimes.com

A joint group of organisations, which took out a protest rally on Friday in the state capital against the recent mob lynching of a community’s youth in Saraikela, attacked and vandalised a bus of Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP) at Rajendra Chowk panicking the commuters.

The district and police administration, however, intervened soon and brought the situation under control. Police personnel have been deployed in area.

“It was a minor incident. Situation was soon brought under control,” said Ranchi deputy commissioner Rai Mahimapat Roy. According to eyewitnesses, students sitting in the bus raised religious slogan which incited people participating in the rally. They then attacked the bus and resorted to vandalism. Some students received minor injuries.

Earlier in the day, organisations under the banner of Muttahida Muslim Mahaz (MMM) convened a public meeting at Urs ground at Doranda where leaders vented ire over the rising mob lynching incidents in the state and demanded CBI probe into the recent killing of Tabrez Ansari.

Addressing the gathering MMM convenor Maulana Obedulla Kasmi said that their agitation was not directed against a particular caste or religion but it was against the unscrupulous elements, who are trying to spread hatred by committing crimes like mob lynching.

The organisations prepared a charter of seven demands to press it before the government.

A mob had mercilessly beaten up Ansari for hours and forced him to chant Jai Sri Ram and Jai Hanuman in Dhatkidih village under Seraikela police station (PS) in the night of June 17-18. He succumbed to his injuries on June 22.