Ranchi bench of the Jharkhand High Court on Tuesday granted bail to seven of the 13 people accused in Tabrez Ansari lynching case on suspicion of theft in Saraikela-Kharaswan district of Jharkhand.
While one accused got bail from the Jharkhand High Court on Monday, six other accused secured bail from the same bench of HC on Tuesday.
“There are 13 accused in the case and all are in jail. All had jointly applied for bail in the district court but the court rejected their plea on November 6. Then they filed three separate bail pleas in the Jharkhand High Court. One got bail yesterday and 6 today,” Senior Advocate Allam told Newsd. He had appeared in the case on behalf of Tabrez’s wife Shaista Parween.
Advocate Allam alleged that the public prosecutor in the case did not utter a word during the hearing for bail plea of the accused.
The 11 accused initially arrested and chargesheeted were: Prakash Mandal alias Pappu Mandal, Kamal Mahato, Sunamo Pradhan, Premchand Mahali, Sumant Mahato, Madan Nayak, Chamu Nayak, Mahesh Mahali, Kushal Mahali, Satyanarayan Nayak and Bhim Sen Mandal. The two new accused against whom murder charge was slapped in supplementary chargesheet in September were: Vikram Mandal and Atul Mehli.
On the ground of the bail order, Adv. Allam said: “There was no specific role mentioned against each accused in the FIR, and this is one of the reasons for granting bail. HC bench said there are general allegations, not specific allegations against accused. It is said mob assaulted Tabrez. No specific allegations in FIR nor in District Court’s bail rejection order. As there are general allegations, so there is prima facie case for bail.”
Ansari was caught by villagers with a stolen bike and was thrashed in Seraikela-Kharsawa district on June 17, 2019.
In September, this year police had dropped murder charges against all the 13 accused in the Tabrez Ansari mob lynching casein Jharkhand’s Saraikela-Kharsawan district.
A week after the Jharkhand police dropped the murder charge against 11 accused in the mob lynching case, they brought back the same charge on the accused after obtaining a fresh medical report.
