Tabrez Ansari case: Charge sheet, witnesses, doctors’ preliminary statement; all rebut “cardiac arrest”     

Jharkhand Police have dropped charges under IPC 302 because he died of a “cardiac arrest” and not “just a head injury”. The police also claim that it was not a pre-mediated murder. However, an analysis of the charge sheet and the statements of witnesses prove otherwise.

On Tuesday, Jharkhand Police dropped IPC 302 (murder) and replaced it with IPC Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).

When the police was questioned, Saraikela-Kharswan Police SP Karthik S told The Indian Express, “We filed a chargesheet under IPC section 304 because of two reasons. One, he did not die at the spot… the villagers did not have any intent to kill Ansari. Second, the medical report did not substantiate the murder charge. The final post-mortem report said Ansari died due to cardiac arrest and that a haemorrhage in the head was not fatal. The second medical opinion said the cause of death was a combination of cardiac arrest and the head injury.”

The preliminary statement of doctors before a post-mortem was conducted, listed head injury, blood clot in the brain and “heart chambers filled with blood” as the grievous injuries that may cause death. When the board was specifically questioned as to the reason of death in case viscera report does not show poison in it, they stated, “The head injury will be the cause of death.”

According to Indian Express, Ansari’s uncle Mohammad Masroor Alam, who was the first to witness the atrocities unfold, on June 18, 6:30 AM; rushed to the spot on hearing about the assault. The police on that day recorded this statement, in which he stated that he heard a member of the mob shout, “Itna maaro ki mar jaye (Beat him so much that he dies).” Alam also said that Ansari was barely able to open his eyes as he was attacked so brutally. The next day, he saw his nephew in jail where he was begging to be treated as he was in a lot of pain.

According to Indian Express, the chargesheet says, “Akroshit graminon dwara usko bandhkar, raat bhar ewam subah bhi dande se peeta gaya. Usse uski dharmik bhavna ke virudh ‘Jai Shri Ram, Jai Hanuman’ ka naara lagaya gaya.” (He was tied up by the angry villagers and beaten with sticks the whole night and in the morning. They forced him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram, Jai Hanuman’ against his religious beliefs.)

The other key statement was of Tinku Mondal, the man who recorded the assault on his phone. He told the police that he later erased the videos because he was scared. “I heard people shouting in the early hours of June 18. I saw that one person was tied to an electricity pole and people were abusing him. He was being beaten with sticks, but some were also asking others not to beat him. Ansari had a phone and was calling someone on it. Villagers asked him to call his two friends (whom they claimed were involved in an alleged theft bid and had escaped),” Mandal told police. His statement also says that Ansari “was forced to chant ‘Jai Hanuman, Jai Shri Ram.’

The Indian Express reports that Altaf Hussain, lawyer for Ansari’s wife Sahista Parween, has stated that he has filed a “protest petition” in court on the murder charges being dropped. “Also, the viscera report has been submitted in the sealed cover to the court. The details have not been mentioned in the charge-sheet,” he said.