The Allahabad high court has granted bail to two of the several accused of lynching a Muslim man following rumours that he had slaughtered a cow in Dadri in Greater Noida in 2015.
Justice UC Srivastava allowed the bail applications of Arun and Punit last Thursday on the condition that they will neither tamper with the prosecution evidence nor will delay the disposal of trial in any manner. The order was released on Tuesday.
The court said it took the decision since they were not named in the FIR. It also said Shaishta, Mohammad Ikhlaq’s daughter, did not name Arun and Punit in her statement to the investigating officer and disclosed their names before the magistrate 68 days after the date of the alleged incident.
Even in her statement before a magistrate, she did not attribute any specific role to the two accused and made only general allegations. Both have been in jail since December 2015.
On September 28, 2015, an angry mob beat up 55-year-old Ikhlaq and injured his son Danish, 22, at Dadri’s Bisada village after an announcement from a local temple that they had consumed ‘beef’ and were storing it in their house. Ikhlaq had succumbed to his injuries while Danish survived with critical injuries.
Ikhlaq’s widow lodged an FIR against 10 known and 4-5 unknown under Sections 147, 148, 149, 323, 307, 302, 427, 458, 504, 506 IPC and Section 7 of Criminal Law Amendment Act 1932, at Jarcha police station in Gautam Budh Nagar.
