Tabrez Ansari Case – Jharkhand Police Restores Section 302 Charges Against Accused

On the 18th of September, the Jharkhand Police filed a supplementary charge sheet and restored the murder charges against the 13 accused of causing Tabrez Ansari’s death.

Tabrez Ansari, 24 years old, died due to the vigilantism of a mob in Jamshedpur.  The incident took place on the 18th of June, when Tabrez was going back home from Jamshedpur and a mob attacked him.  They caught Tabrez and alleged him of stealing a motorcycle, following which, they tied him to a pole and beat him for 7 long hours.

The Jharkhand Police registered a case under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC,) eight days after they dropped the murder charges.

The decision to restore the murder charges came after a fresh medical report was released by the Heads of Departments (HoDs) of the Mahatama Gandhi Memorial (MGM) Medical College of Jamshedpur.

The charge sheet was filed in the Seraikela Kharsawan District Court against all the 13 accused.  Initially, the case was filed against 11 of the 13 accused, but after an investigation, all the 13 were found guilty of Tabrez’s murder.

On the 10th of September, the Jharkhand Police dropped the murder charges, after the postmortem report of Ansari declared his death was due to a cardiac arrest, not because of injuries.  However, later, the HoDs of MGM Medical College signed a medical report, which stated the cardiac arrest which caused Tabrez’s death took place due to a skull fracture and severe injuries on his body.

The committee of 5 members said, “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.”

Recently, after the Police dropped the charges of murder against the accused, Shahista Parveen, Tabrez’s wife, met the District Collector and threatened to kill herself if the Police did not restore the murder charges.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) is interrogating the accused charged under Section 302 of the IPC and investigating the case.

Stay tuned for further updates.