Tabrez Ansari, who was attacked by a mob in Jharkhand, died of cardiac arrest, says doctor

Dr B Mardi, one of the doctors who was in the team that had conducted autopsy on 24-year-old Tabrez Ansari has said that he died of a cardiac arrest.

Tabrez was beaten 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 in a hospital. The incident was filmed by witnesses.

However, the charges of murder against 11 accused in the attack on Tabrez Ansari in June were dropped because the post-mortem report said he died of a cardiac arrest.

According to a report in NDTV, Mardi said, "It's not my report alone. It was done with a team of doctors.”

On being asked that whether the 24-year-old would have died of mob attack, Mardi said to NDTV, "See, he was beaten but had that been the reason he would have died that day itself or after two-three days. But he was beaten on 17th night and he died on 22nd morning. And between that he was walking and talking. We were not in the jail, but we were told he was fine inside the jail."

"The cardiac arrest could be due to stress, which can be triggered by several reasons, injury being one of them," he said. Mardi also said that no poison was found in the viscera report.

Earlier, Jharkhand Police has dropped murder charge against 11 accused in the mob lynching case of Tabrez Ansari.

The Seraikela-Kharsawan district police charge-sheeted 11 of the 13 named accused in the case on July 29, dropping the stringent charge of murder under section 302 of the IPC. They will now face the law for lesser offence under section 304 of IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).

Seraikela-Kharsawan Superintendent of Police Karthik S said the murder charge was dropped against 11 accused on the basis of postmortem, medical and forensic reports which said 24-year-old Ansari died of cardiac arrest.

"The postmortem and medical report did not support the charge of murder. They said he died of cardiac arrest.

"We had doubts and we went for a second opinion from higher level experts from the forensic and pathological side and they also gave the same set of opinion. So, we had to charge them under section 304 instead of 302," the officer said.

In the event of conviction, section 302 provides for life imprisonment and even death penalty. Under section 304, a convict can be sentenced to imprisonment for 10 years which may extend to life imprisonment.