After facing allegations of weakening the Tabrez Ansari lynching case, the Seraikela-Kharsawan police on Wednesday submitted a supplementary charge-sheet to the court in the case seeking punishment under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (murder) against 13 accused.

The police submitted supplementary charge-sheet in the case after eight days of original charge-sheet submitted in the court. In the earlier charge-sheet, the police had charged the 13 accused under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC.

While the quantum of punishment under Section 302 is death or imprisonment for life and fine, the penalty under Section 304 is imprisonment for life or imprisonment for 10 years or fine or both. Saraikela-Kharsawan SP, Karthik S said, “The police based on fresh medical report had filed a supplementary charge sheet in the Court, thus retaining Section 302 of the IPC. As per previous medical report, Ansari’s death was caused due to cardiac arrest was not clear. The police then decided to take the second opinion of doctors from the MGM Medical College and Hospital in Jamshedpur.”

The SP said that the Jharkhand police in this connection have issued a detailed statement.  As per the statement, the reason of death was reserved in view of pending viscera examination in the postmortem report received by police during the time of submission of charge-sheet earlier.

In the report of the Forensic Science Laboratory, doctors had opined that the death was caused due to cardiac arrest. But, the reason of heart attack was not clear. The Statement further States that on the basis of fresh medical report, the police came to the conclusion that the cardiac arrest was caused by the preceding violence inflicted with ‘hard and blunt’ object.

Tabrez Ansari, worked as a labourer and welder in Pune and had come to celebrate Eid with his family when he was captured by locals at Dhatkidih village on the night of June 17 over suspicion of trying to steal a motorcycle.

Ansari was tied to a pole and assaulted by a mob with sticks and iron rods. The issue came to light after the video of Tabrez beating up went viral. In the viral video, it was seen that Tabrez was asked to chant ‘Jai Sri Ram’ and ‘Jai Hanuman’ by assaulters.