It’s just been five days since 72-year-old Ashraf Ali Sayyad Hussain Maniar was assaulted during a Jalgaon-Kalyan train journey over suspicion of carrying beef. And the chinks in the police action against his attackers are already too visible.
The police are yet to invoke mob lynching charges under section 103(2) of the new Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita. And there was no suo motu cognisance of hate speech, despite signs that the incident was communally motivated and the Supreme Court’s clear guidelines.
Maniar was beaten up on August 28. An FIR was filed by GRP Thane police only on August 31, after the family came to know of the assault through a viral video and filed a complaint. His family claimed that a complete medical examination of the elderly man is yet to be done even though he was taken to a hospital on the day the case was lodged.
The FIR named six accused, and the police managed to arrest three of them – Akash Awhad, Nitesh Ahire and Jayesh Mohite – the next day. But they walked out of custody the next day after being granted bail by a judicial magistrate of first class court, considering sections such as unlawful assembly, criminal intimidation, wrongful restraint, rioting, voluntarily causing hurt, insult with intent to provoke breach of peace, and mischief.
The bail was cancelled on Monday after the police, amid mounting outrage, added sections 302 (uttering words with deliberate intent to hurt religious feelings) and 311 (robbery or dacoity with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita against the accused and moved court against the relief granted to the accused.
The police are yet to nab the other accused.
‘Father never told us he was attacked’
This story was originally published in newslaundry.com. Read the full story here.
