Police chargesheet drops murder charge against 11 accused in Tabrez killing

The Jharkhand Police have dropped the murder charges against the 11 people accused in the mob lynching of a man in June.

The police said one reason they had not filed charges under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code was that the postmortem examination report blamed cardiac arrest for the death of 24-year-old Tabrez Ansari, The Indian Express reported. The 11 accused were instead charged under Section 304 of the IPC, which deals with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

A mob caught Ansari in Dhaktidih village in Seraikela-Kharsawan district while he was allegedly attempting to steal a motorcycle on June 18. He was reportedly tied to a pole and beaten for 12 hours. The police took Ansari into custody and produced him in a court, which sent him to judicial remand. According to the police, Ansari fell ill on June 22 and was taken to a hospital, where he died. The FIR said that the mob had also forced Ansari to chant “Jai Shri Ram” and “Jai Hanuman”.