Tabrez Ansari was thrashed for hours June 18 in Jharkhand; he died a few days later
Highlights
- Tabrez Ansari was beaten up with rods while tied to a pole for hours
- His post-mortem report had said he died of a cardiac arrest
- The murder charges were brought back based on a fresh medical report
Eight days after murder charges against the men accused in a fatal mob attack on a 24-year-old in Jharkhand were dropped because the post-mortem report said he died of a cardiac arrest, the police have reinstated the murder charge.
The police on Wednesday filed a supplementary chargesheet, bringing back the murder charge, based on a fresh medical report. The police also filed the chargesheet against the remaining two accused charging them with murder.
Tabrez Ansari was beaten up with rods while tied to a pole for hours and forced to chant "Jai Shri Ram" on June 18 on suspicion of stealing a motorcycle with two other young men in Jharkhand's Seraikela Kharsawan. He died from his injuries four days later on June 22 in a hospital. The incident was filmed by witnesses.
The police had on September 10 dropped murder charges and converted it to culpable homicide not amounting to murder on the basis of postmortem, medical and forensic reports which said Tabrez Ansari died of cardiac arrest.
"Medical report did not give any supporting evidence for murder so that we charged (the accused) under culpable homicide not amounting to murder," Karthik S, a senior police officer in Jharkhand, had told NDTV.
An official, justifying the murder charge in the supplementary chargesheet, told news agency PTI that the police took a second opinion of specialist doctors as the previous medical report stating the death was caused due to cardiac arrest was not clear.
"On the basis of main findings, we opined that (1) The fracture of bone is grievous injury caused by hard & blunt object. (2). The combined effect of fracture of bone, pale organs and heart chambers full of blood resulting into cardiac arrest," the report by fresh board of doctors said.
The police also did not find any distortion in the viral video showing Ansari being beaten up by the accused, the official said.
On June 18, Tabrez Ansari was travelling with friends when around 5 km from his home a mob accused him of stealing a motorcycle. He was tied to a pole and beaten for over seven hours before being handed over to the police.
The police as well as doctors who initially examined Tabrez Ansari were held responsible for his death by a three-member team led by Saraikela-Kharwan Deputy Commissioner Anjaneyullu Dodde set up to probe its cause. "While the police reached late, the doctors did not diagnose the skull injury correctly," the report, which came out in July, said.
(with inputs from PTI)