Patna, Mar 17 (NIE): All the 11 people accused of lynching a Muslim trader in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh for allegedly carrying beef in his car last year were on Friday convicted by a lower court in the first conviction in a case related to violence in the name of cow protection.

Ramgarh fast-track court judge Om Prakash held all the 11 men guilty of killing Alimuddin alias Asgar Ansari, 42, in a pre-planned mob attack and setting his Maruti van was afire on a road at Bazartand on the morning of June 29, 2017.

Among the convicts are Nityanand Mahto, a local BJP leader, and Kapil Thakur, a member of the local unit of ABVP. All the 11 accused were brought to the court from jail for announcement of verdict.

The court will pronounce sentences in the case on March 20. Three of the 11 accused – Deepak Mishra, Chhotu Verma and Santosh Singh – were also convicted under Section 120 (B) of the IPC, making it clear that the mob attack was a pre-planned incident. The trial of one of the accused, Chhotu Rana, a minor, was earlier shifted to the local juvenile justice board.

The brutal attack that killed Alimuddin had made national headlines at a time of a raging debate on violence unleashed by different parts of the country by self-styled cow vigilantes.

In videos of the attack circulating on the social media, Alimuddin was seen being beaten up with pieces of meat by a number of people in the middle of the road while his car stood burning nearby. Alimuddin died while being taken to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi.

The case was shifted to the fast-track court in September 2017 on the order of Jharkhand High Court.
The prosecution had presented 19 witnesses while the defence presented only one. As many as 59 pieces of documentary evidence and 20 material evidences were presented by the prosecution before the court.

A video CD of the attack prepared by the Ramgarh circle officer and authenticated by Central Forensic Laboratory in Chandigarh was also presented in the court.

The epidemic of mob lynching

Mohammad Allimuddin, a resident of Hazaribagh district, was thrashed by around 30 people after
they surrounded his van in the Bazaar Tand area of Ramgarh police station.

They dragged out the driver of the vehicle and injured him grievously. Alimuddin died while being taken to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences in Ranchi.