NEW DELHI/HAZARIBAGH: Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha who has been speaking out in support of the convicts of the Ramgarh lynching was there outside the Central Jail at Hazaribagh to welcome the eight as they walked out on bail. Life sentences for the murder of a Muslim trader Alimuddin alias Asghar Ali given by a lower court were suspended by the Jharkhand High Court on June 27.

Sinha was present with sweets and garlands, felicitating the convicts. At the time of their arrest and conviction by the court of additional district judge Om Prakash the Minister had been quoted in the media as stating that “from whatever I have gathered whatever after consultations and studying the various facets (of the case), I firmly believe that complete justice has not been done. I am not a police officer, and I have not done a detailed inquiry, but as per my understanding, complete justice has not been done. I consulted senior lawyers and also took advice from the party (BJP) on the matter. I have decided to write to the (Jharkhand) chief minister (Raghubar Das), requesting him to recommend a CBI probe.”

The Fast Track Court had at the time held guilty all the accused under Section 302 (murder) and other offences of the IPC, making it the first case in the country where those accused of a cow lynching were actually convicted. The High Court celebrated the first anniversary of the mob lynching by suspending the life sentences of the eight convicts, including the BJP leader Nityananda Mahto.

Alimuddin was killed brutally in the Ramgarh bazaar by a cow mob on June 29, 2017. His wife had filed a FIR stating that he had left their house in village Manua at about 8am on that fateful day. She said that a mob including 12 persons named apprehended her husband, dragged him out of his Maruti van and assaulted him. He died on the spot. She had pointed out in the FIR that all the accused could be identified in the photographs and the videos of the incident.

The Division Bench of the Jharkhand High Court has ruled now, ““It is apparent from the evidence on the record that the informant, who is the wife of the deceased, is not the eye-witness to the occurrence. Some of the eye-witnesses have named some of the accused persons giving omnibus allegation that they had assaulted the deceased. Some photographs and one video that had become viral, is the source of identification of the appellants and this has been proved by P.W.-16, who is the I.O. of the case, during trial. It appears from the record that the video was displayed in the Court and she has identified all the appellants in the said video. From her evidence on record it appears that she has identified these appellants in the Court in the video, in which these appellants were only shown present in n the mob. There is no allegation of any assault against them rather, the allegation of assault on the basis of video is specific against three other co-accused persons who are not the appellants before us. To cap all, it has come in the evidence of .O., that the source of the video and photographs was not known to her…”.

And further added, ““…it is only apparent that the appellants were the members of the mob, and in view of lack of evidence of specific assault against them, we are inclined to release the appellants on bail”.

Jayant Sinha who was moved out of the Ministry of Finance to Civil Aviation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in what was seen as a demotion welcomed the men with sweets. He is the son of BJP leader Yashwant Sinha who has been very critical of the Modi government in recent times.

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