Chhattisgarh lynching case victims jumped from bridge, not beaten: Chargesheet
The chargesheet said the three cattle transporters jumped from the bridge out of fear and the accused who were chasing them had not beaten or thrashed them
A month after the alleged mob-lynching case in which three cattle transporters were found dead below the Mahanadi river bridge at Arang in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur, police in its chargesheet have said that the deceased jumped from the bridge out of fear and the accused had not beaten or thrashed them. The chargesheet, filed on July 8, said the deceased were chased by three cars for at least 54 kilometres before they jumped.
The lawyer representing the deceased claimed that the chargesheet is totally misleading and they will approach the high court soon and demand that a first information report (FIR) should be registered under sections of murder as they were mercilessly beaten for hours before they were thrown from the bridge.
On June 7, two cattle transporters—Chand Miya and Guddu-- died and another one, Saddam, sustained serious injuries under suspicious circumstances after being allegedly chased by a mob in Arnag police station area. Saddam, who was admitted in a hospital, died a week later.
Raipur police lodged an FIR lodged against unknown people under sections 307 (punishment for attempt to murder) and 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code.
However, after Saddam died in a hospital on June 18, police said his postmortem report did not mention assault injuries and dropped the murder attempt charges. Hence all five accused who were arrested in last 30 days were charged under section 304 (act done with common intention)
It is worth mentioning that a day after the incident, Shoaib, a cousin of Chand and Saddam, told media that a mob had attacked the three people and said that his friend Mohsin was called by Saddam when they were being attacked.
“Chand told me they were being attacked by a mob. But before he could provide any detail, the call got disconnected,” Shoaib had claimed.
In the second call to Mohsin, which lasted for 47 minutes, Saddam could be heard saying that his limbs were broken, Shoaib had said.
“Saddam could be heard pleading with his attackers to spare him. I believe Saddam had put his phone in his pocket while he was calling (Mohsin) and it never got disconnected so everything could be heard clearly,” he had then claimed.
As per the police chargesheet, the five accused arrested in the case were Harsh Mishra, Mayank Sharma, Raja Agarwal, Navin Thakur and Tanay Luniya.
“The accused got the information that a truck with registration number CG 07 CG 3929 was possibly transporting animals illegally. The accused gathered near the Jhalap toll plaza (Mahasamund district) to intercept the vehicle and when they were moving towards Tumgaon they spotted the truck. The accused, traveling in three cars—a Swift Dzire with registration number CG 24 M 6433, a Honda City with registration number CG 04 HM 2111, and a BMW—began to chase the truck. The truck driver continued driving with the accused in pursuit, putting pressure on the driver to either stop the truck or speed -up. The accused threw spikes and stones at the truck’s windshield in an attempt to stop it. Despite these efforts, the truck did not stop and instead crossed the divider near Kampa and started driving on the wrong side of the road,” the chargesheet said.
The truck driver, in an attempt to evade the accused, continued driving on the wrong side for about 14 kilometres, while the accused paralleled him on their side of the road, continuously trying to stop the truck by throwing spikes and stones.
“This caused one of the truck’s tires to become completely damaged, reducing it to the rim and then stopped at Mahanadi bridge, where three individuals in the truck jumped into the river to save their lives,” police said in the chargesheet.
“The actions of the accused, knowing the potentially fatal consequences, fall under the criminal act mentioned in Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). After investigation, a charge sheet numbered 385/2024 was prepared against the accused for committing the offense under sections 304 and 34 of the IPC,” the chargesheet said.
The lawyer of the deceased victim claimed that the facts mentioned in the chargesheet are totally misleading. “My clients were mercilessly beaten and thrashed by about 12 people. We will knock on the doors of the high court and will urge the court to register a case under Section 302 (murder) of IPC. We are filing a writ in the next couple of days with all evidence,” said Hafiz Beg, the lawyer who is representing the victim.
Meanwhile, the lawyer of the accused, Brajesh Pandey, claimed that his client was innocent, and it was an accident.
“It was an accident, nothing more than that. My clients are innocent,” said Pandey.