Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Aug 24: The Supreme Court has directed Jharkhand High Court on Wednesday to expedite the hearing in the Jharkhand cattle traders lynching case where two persons were killed namely Majlum Ansari and Imtiyaz Khan.
The bench of Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice P. Narasimha also said that while they were not inclined to entertain the petition, in the facts and circumstances of the case, the judges of the High Court of Jharkhand were requested to decide the appeal expeditiously and in any case, within a period of one year.
The change occurred as a result of a Special Leave Petition against the Jharkhand High Court’s decision and order from April 13, 2022, which suspended the sentences of the three respondent convicts and released them on bail while the high court was hearing their appeal.
Earlier in 2018, a Trial Court had found 8 men guilty of murdering 2 people, including 1 13-year-old kid, in accordance with Section 302/34 of the Indian Penal Code. The prosecution claimed that the accused had threatened the adult dead with severe repercussions if he did not give up his cattle selling business.
Through the Advocate Talha Abdul Rahman, the petition was filed by Md. Nijamuddin, the informant and one of the eyewitnesses in the case. The petition claimed that the High Court erred by relying solely on the FIR, which was contrary to the widely accepted idea that a FIR did not contain all the facts and therefore could not be used as an exhaustive account of the incident in question. According to the petition, the High Court’s ruling primarily relied on the FIR and ignored other relevant factors, witnesses, and supporting documentation. It also stated that because the respondent-convicts had already been found guilty by the Trial Court in accordance with Sections 302/34 IPC, there was a presumption of guilt against them.
Accordingly, the petition had asked the court to give special leave to appeal against the decision and order from the Hon’ble High Court of Jharkhand at Ranchi, which was passed on April 13, 2022. As an alternative, the petitioner had asked for a grant of an ad-interim stay of the contested Order, dated April 13, 2022, made by the High Court of Jharkhand in Ranchi, during the time that the current plea was pending.
