2016 Latehar Lynching: Eight Men Convicted for Killing 2 Muslim Cattle Traders
However, the prime accused in the FIR, Vinod Prajapati, was never arrested by the police. He is reported to be a local BJP leader.
A Jharkhand court on Wednesday, December 19 reportedly convicted eight men for murdering two muslim men in Latehar district in 2016. 32-year-old Mazlum Ansari and 13-year-old Imteyaz Khan were beaten to death and hanged from a tree, sparking nationwide outrage.
The court will announce the sentence of the eight convicts —Mithilesh Prasad Sahu, Pramod Kumar Sahu, Manoj Kumar Sahu, Awadhesh Sahu, Manoj Sahu, Arun Sao, Vishal Tiwary, and Shahdev Soni — later this week, reported Hindustan Times.
Ansari and Khan were taking their cattle to a cattle fair in nearby Chatra district when the ‘cow vigilantes’ attacked them. The families of the victims had alleged that the incident was ‘pre-planned”.
“Arun Sao and Bunty Sao (the accused) had come to our house to warn my husband who was bathing at that time. They told him to stop trading cattle else they would kill him,” Saira Bibi, Mazloom Ansari’s wife, told NewsClick.
NewsClick report added that the eye-witnesses in the case, who filed the FIR, had specified Vinod Prajapati as the main accused, along with 12 of his associates, However, Prajapati has not been arrested in the case. Reports suggest that Prajapati is a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader.
“The Police never arrested the prime accused Prajapati. And even before filing the chargesheet, the accused managed to get a bail from the Jharkhand High Court,” Abdul Salam, the advocate for Mazloom and Imtiaz, told Newsclick.
Also Read: Why Everyone Needs to Watch Lynch Nation