11 given life term in Jharkhand lynching case

Jitendra K Shrivastava
Tribune News Service
Ranchi, March 21

A fast track court in Jharkhand sentenced 11 people to life imprisonment on Wednesday for having lynched a Muslim meat trader in the state’s Ramgarh district in June last year over suspicions that he was carrying meat—a case that led to widespread outrage in the country.

A Ramgarh court held the 11 guilty of killing the 40-year-old, Alimuddin Ansari, on March 17. Ansari was killed by a mob of cow vigilantes in Bazaar Thand in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh town on June 29, 2017. A video of the incident, taped by a local policeman, had gone viral on social media.

Among those accused in the case is a local leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, while another belongs to the local unit of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)—the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

One other suspect is underage and will be tried by a juvenile court.

The accused have said they would appeal the order.