Madhya Pradesh : On December 20, a Sessions Court in Madhya Pradesh’s Khandwa district convicted 40 persons in an 8-year-old riot. Additional session Judge Prachi Patel announced the verdict. Forty persons were pronounced guilty under Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code. During the hearing, the court found 40 convicts guilty and sentenced them to seven years in jail in section 307 and acquitted them in other areas. Besides, two persons were acquitted in the case.
Among the 47 accused, there four minors were released, while one of the accused died. A case was registered against 42 charged under sections 307, 148, 188, 294, 323, 506, 34, 353, and 332 of the Indian Penal Code.
As per the judgment, on July 30, 2014, a victim identified as Sushil Kumar was killed in Imlipura of Moghat Police Station area. Sushil Kumar Pundge was a life insurance agent at SBI. He was attacked when he was travelling through the Imlipura area. Kumar was allegedly killed as he was wearing a Tilak on his forehead. Kumar was seriously injured and rushed to hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
Following his murder, communal clashes were in the area, and the police had to use tear gas to control the crowd. Section 144 was imposed in the area, and the district magistrate imposed a curfew to ensure law and order and to avoid communal violence.
On September 1, 2014, when police personnel Rameshchandra Panwar, Radheshyam, Vipendra Singh and Rajveer Singh went to the Bangladesh colony of Ghaspur for patrolling at around 1 PM, they noticed that the accused were roaming outside despite a curfew in the area. The police personnel tried to convince them to return home, but they refused to comply with their requests. The police control room was subsequently informed about the situation.
A few moments later, some people charged the police personnel with rods, batons, axe, and stones. Station in-charge Anil Sharma reached the spot with additional force to control the situation. Upon his arrival, the accused started pelting stones at police personnel.
Police officials Anil Sharma, Ramesh Panwar, Tikaram, Vijay Singh, Geeta, Rajveer Singh, Virendra, Narendra, Dayashankar, Rohini, Preeti, Neelam and Narendra, were injured, and some police vehicles were also damaged.
Notably, it was stated that one of the accused, Farukh, intentionally threw a stone towards Station in-charge Anil Sharma to kill him. The rock hit his helmet, and Sharma narrowly escaped.
Police recovered an axe from Jahoor and a baton from Irfan. Notably, one of the accused, Mohammad Azhar, was wearing a police uniform. When the police enquired about it, he could not explain it or present any documents. Around 35-40 miscreants, including men and women, escaped.
Out of the 40 accused, two, identified as Imran and Farooq, were declared absconding. The cases of juvenile accused were sent to the Juvenile Justice Court. One of the accused, Sheikh Zakir, has since died. All the accused were released on bail between September 4 2014, and June 23, 2015.( Inputs from ANI and Opindia)
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