Ranchi: After four years of waiting, Shaista Perween, the wife of Tabrez Ansari, whose WhatsApp DP still has the marriage picture with her husband, is disappointed and sad. Today, a session court in Jharkhand has sentenced ten years imprisonment to 10 murderers of her husband. Unlike two other previous judgments in the mob lynching cases, in the lynching of Tabrez Ansari, the court only awarded ten years imprisonment.
On June 17, 2019, 25-year-old Ansari, a resident of Saraikela-Kharsawan district was lynched by a mob. He was not only mercilessly beaten for allegedly stealing a bike but forced to chant Jai Shree Ram. The mob lynching was widely protested across India and the issue was raised in the United Nations too.
There were 13 accused in the lynching. One accused died during trial and except Prakash Mandal alias Pappu Mandal, all were on bail.
On June 27, this year, the court of first additional session judge Saraikela Amit Shekhar acquitted two accused and ten were held guilty under sections 304, 295, 147, 148, 149 and 34 of Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Not a single killer of Ansari, whose marriage was solemnised only 57 days back, was given life imprisonment.
“It is not justice for me. I had always wanted my husband’s killer to be hanged. When the conviction order came, I had thought at least life imprisonment will be given to the convicts but the court did not award it to a single killer. Not even to the one who was in the jail for the last four years,” Shaista told eNewsroom over phone.
23-year-old Shaista, was pregnant and after the death of Tabrez, in miscarriage she lost her child.
Even after losing everything, she did not lose hope for justice. The widow met chief minister of Jharkhand Hemant Soren four times in the last four years to request speedy trial of the case. She wanted her husband’s case to be tried in fast track court. But it did not happen. She also attended many court hearings just to know the progress of her husband’s case.
Altaf Hussain, advocate of Tabrez told eNewsroom after the sentence, “We are not satisfied with the judgment and we will go to high court after going through court order.”
The killers who got ten years imprisonment are- Pappu Mandal, Bhimsen Mandal, Kamal Mandal, Sumanto Pradhan, Premchand Mahli, Mahesh Mahli, Khusal Mahli and two others while Sumanto Mahto and Satnaryan Nayak have acquitted.
Earlier, in two mob lynching related cases— Ramgarh’s Alimuddin Ansari and Latehar’s Imtiaz Khan and Mazloom Ansari, life imprisonment were awarded to the killers.
However, all killers got bail from Ranchi High Court. The killers of Alimuddin Ansari were even garlanded by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Hazaribagh MP Jayant Sinha after getting out of the prison.
There were thirty mob lynching incidents took place between 2016 to 2020 and it is still continued in the state. Seeing the large number of cases, Jharkhand assembly had passed an anti-mob lynching bill but it could not see light of the day as the bill was returned by the former Governor Ramesh Bais.
