IIM-B faculty, students seek fresh probe into Jharkhand lynching

A section of faculty and students of the state-run Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B) urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order a fresh inquiry into the death of 24-year-old Tabrez Ansari on June 22 due to alleged mob lynching on June 17 in Jharkhand's Kharsawan district village.

"We the faculty, staff and students of IIM-B express shock and dismay over how the Jharkhand police has handled the lynching of Ansari. We urge you to act swiftly by directing the Jharkhand government to institute a fresh probe," said the letter.

According to IIM-B Associate Professor Deepak Malghan, 16 faculty, 85 students and non-teaching staff of the business school signed the letter, seeking Modi's intervention, as "it was the constitutional duty of the state to protect the life and liberty of all its citizens".

The letter was circulated on September 12 in the B-school campus through an e-mail by a professor with a covering note that "as an academic community, it is important that we stand up to the impunity with which the state has abrogated its constitutional duty."

The Jharkhand police decision to convert the murder case under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) into a culpable homicide not amounting to murder under section 304 of the IPC prompted the academic community to make the appeal to Modi.

The heinous crime took place around midnight on June 17 at Kadamdia village, 15km from Seraikela town in Kharsawan district and 150km from Jharkhand capital Ranchi.

Ansari succumbed to death on June 22 in judicial custody from the serious injuries sustained in the lynching, nearly two months after he married on April 27. He was working as a welder at Pune in western Maharashtra.

According to the first information report, filed on July 29 by local police, the 11 accused who were arrested are from the neighbouring Dhatkidih village.

A video grab of the lynching, aired on news channels, showed Ansari thrashed with iron rods while tied to a pole and forced to chant "Jai Shri Rama and "Jai Hanuman" over an alleged theft.

Ansari's widow Shahista Parvez also sought a judicial inquiry into the unnatural death as he could not get timely medical treatment to his injuries.