The Jharkhand High Court on Tuesday granted bail to another accused in the Ramgarh lynching case, saying there was no evidence against him, PTI reported. A fast track court had in March sentenced 11 people to life imprisonment for the lynching of coal trader Alimuddin Ansari on June 29, 2017, on the suspicion that he was carrying beef.
But the High Court granted bail to one of the accused on June 8, and eight others on June 29. With the release of Chhotu Verma on Tuesday, only one of the accused is still in jail. Defence counsel BM Tripathy said one of the accused is a minor, and is being investigated by the Juvenile Justice Board.
The Ramgarh lynching case garnered fresh attention last week when Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha met and garlanded the eight accused at his home in Hazaribagh, after their release from jail. “I have repeatedly expressed my misgivings about the fast-track court judgement sentencing each accused to life imprisonment,” he had later said.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday supported an online petition demanding that Sinha’s status as an alumnus of Harvard University be withdrawn. The petition has been launched by Prateek Kanwal, another Harvard alumnus.
“These actions of the minister have shocked the nation and brought disrepute to our great institution,” Kanwal said in the petition. “As a responsible citizen of this country and as an alumni of Harvard, I strongly condemn these actions and ask the Harvard University to withdraw his alumni status.” Kanwal also wrote to Harvard University President Lawrence Bacow, asking him to publicly condemn Sinha’s actions.
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