Tabrez Ansari Lynching: IIM-Bangalore Students, Faculty write to PM, Seek Fresh Probe

New Delhi: Over a 100 faculty members and students of Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B), have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking a fresh investigation into the lynching to death of Tabrez Ansari in Jharkhand, by a Right-wing mob.

“We urge you to act swiftly and decisively by directing the state government to institute a fresh probe. It is the constitutional duty of the state to protect the life and liberty of all citizens,” says an email release of the letter by Deepak Malghan, an Associate Professor in IIM-B.

In the email, the signatories have expressed “shock and dismay” at the manner in which the Jharkhand Police has handled the case of Ansari, 24, who has left behind a 19-year-old widow, Shahista Parveen.

Shahista has also demanded a fresh probe after the Jharkhand Police dropped charges of murder against the 11 accused recently. She has threatened to commit suicide if the case is not investigated afresh.

One of the signatories to the letter, Professor Trilochan Sastry, told News18 "Some of us concerned faculty members and students have written to the PM on the way the Ansari case was probed. As citizens we have a duty and right to raise our voice on things that come to our notice. It should be re-investigated.”

Sastry is with the Decision Sciences Area, IIM Bangalore, and is also chairman of non-profit organisation and election watchdog, Association for Democratic Reforms.

Tabrez Ansari was lynched allegedly by a Hindu Right-wing mob in June. He had got married about two months earlier and was visiting the state for this purpose, as he was working as a welder in Pune. The case came to light after a video of the merciless lynching went viral on social media, showing a bleeding Ansari pleading for his life. He was thrashed for alleged bike theft and the video showed him being forced by the Right-wing mob to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Jai Hanuman’.

After countrywide outrage, the Seraikela-Kharsawan district police  arrested 13 persons, but on September 10, they dropped murder charges against the 11 accused claiming that there was ‘inconclusiveness” about the cause of Ansari’s death. It may be recalled that earlier, too, the police had cited doctors and claimed that Ansari had died of cardiac arrest.

Ansari, who was lynched on June 17, died on June 22 after succumbing to injuries while in judicial custody. His family and relatives have alleged that he was not given proper and timely medical attention.