Want bail, serve community: Jharkhand HC to six convicts
THE BENCH ASKED THE ACCUSED TO RENDER COMMUNITY SERVICE ON OCTOBER 3 AND NOVEMBER 6 AT THE GOVERNMENTRUN RAJENDRA INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES
A Jharkhand high court judge has imposed a unique condition of “community service through traffic management and helping OPD patients at hospital” for granting bail to six incarcerated people allegedly involved in communal violence in Ranchi this year.
The incident occurred at a Muslim-dominated Bargaiyn locality in Jharkhand capital on June 3 in which a Hindu marriage procession was allegedly attacked by the members of the minority community leaving eight, including a five-year-old girl injured. The incident was allegedly the fall out of an objectionable Facebook post shared by the bridegroom’s cousin.
Following the incident, the police in June arrested six persons namely Imtiyaz Ansari, a businessman, Mojibur Rahman, a central government employee, Shakiruddin, Firoz Alam, Mohammad Aman and Sahid Alam, all students, and sent them to jail. All the six had moved the Jharkhand high court for bail.
Granting them provisional bail on Friday, the bench of justice S Chandrashekhar besides imposing other conditions, asked the accused to render community service on October 3 and November 6 at the government-run Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Ranchi. It directed them to report to the RIMS superintendent at 8.30 am on the fixed dates. The superintendent would depute them to the hospital’s main gate for managing the traffic or patients’ rush at OPDs for three hours.
The superintendent would submit a report to the investigating officer who would furnish the same along with an affidavit, highlighting the conduct of the accused to the court on the next date of hearing on December 14.
The bench opined, “Service to the society by the accused persons would not only be appreciated by both the communities but it would also give solace to the injured persons.”
It also directed each of the six accused to deposit ₹15,000 with the trial court, out of which ₹20,000 would be paid to the fiveyear old girl Saumya Kumari who sustained grievous head injuries, and ₹10,000 each would be paid to another seven injured persons.
According to the two FIRs lodged in this connection, 37 named accused and 300-350 unknown persons attacked the wedding party with bamboo sticks and stones. The rampage took place when the wedding party was bursting crackers in the vicinity of a mosque. Locals opposed it leading to a scuffle.
A huge crowd later chased the wedding party and attacked it when it took a brief halt at locality’s Panchdev Mandir.
With the intervention of the district administration, the situation was brought to normalcy the next day. A peace committee comprising elders of the locality was also formed to restore peace and harmony.