JUNAID LYNCHING CASE: HC STAYS TRIAL COURT PROCEEDINGS

CHANDIGARH: : The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday stayed the trial proceedings in a Faridabad court in the Junaid Khan lynching case.

The HC division bench of justices Mahesh Grover and RS Attri also sought response from the Haryana government and the CBI on the petition of the victim’s family seeking probe by the federal agency into the case. The bench acted on the appeal filed by Junaid’s father Jalaluddin against the single-bench order dismissing demand for CBI probe on November 27. The single bench had held that it was not a fit case for high court intervention and for handing over the probe to the CBI. Besides, the petitioner has demanded security to the family .

Junaid (16) was stabbed to death when he along with his brothers was returning home at Khandawli village after Eid shopping in Delhi aboard a Mathura-bound train on June 22 this year. His body was dumped close to Asaoti village in Faridabad district. Two persons — Naresh Kumar and Ra mesh war D ass— have been charged with murder and four others are facing allegations of voluntarily causing hurt, among other sections.

The family is demanding the accused should have been charged with promoting enmity between different groups and giving statements to incite a community. The convicts maybe awarded up to 5 years in jail for these offences. The petition states that the single-judge bench failed to take cognisance of the fact that the incident was “a totally one-sided affair where the victims were weak and marginalised and belonged to a targeted section of society”.