On December 20, a Sessions Court in Madhya Pradesh’s Khandwa district convicted 40 persons in an 8-year-old riot case. Additional session Judge Prachi Patel announced the verdict. 40 persons were pronounced guilty under Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code. All 40 have been sentenced to seven years in prison.
There were a total of 47 accused in the case, including four minors who were released while one of the accused died. Out of the remaining 42, two got acquitted, and 40 were convicted. The case against the accused was filed under Sections 307, 148, 188, 294, 323, 506, 34, 353, and 332 of the Indian Penal Code.
The riots of 2014
As per the judgment, On July 30, 2014, a victim identified as Sushil Kumar was killed in Imlipura of Moghat Police Station area. As per reports, 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, there were communal clashes 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 in spite of a curfew in the area. The police personnel tried to convince them to go back home, but they refused to adhere to their requests. The police control room was subsequently informed about the situation.
Soon after, the miscreants in the area started abusing and threatening the police personnel. They said, “You have made our lives miserable. You are not letting us out of our homes. Police is not allowed in our colony. If you enter, we will kill you.”
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 stone hit his helmet, and Sharma narrowly escaped.
Police personnel Neelam Thakur informed the court in her statement that they were attacked from a mosque with boiling hot water and bricks. The police personnel tried to convince the miscreants, including women and children, to stay inside, but they did not listen.
39 accused were detained by the police following the violence in the area.
Police recovered an axe from Jahoor and a baton from Irfan. Notably, one of the accused, identified as 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, were able to escape.
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.
List of the convicts:
- 32-year-old Kaleem s/o Mehboob Sayyed
- 52-year-old Hafiz s/o Habib
- 42-year-old Mohammad Umar s/o Mohammad Yusuf
- 49-year-old Mohammad Razak s/o Chandshah
- 46-year-old Mohammad Irfan s/0 Mohammad Shaukat
- 37-year-old Javed s/o Saleem Khan
- 45-year-old Zahoor s/o babu
- 75-year-old Shabbir Sheikh s/o Sattar Sheikh
- 30-year-old Mohammad Ali s/o Mohsen Ali
- 65-year-old Haji Salamuddin s/o HajiAllauddin
- 39-year-old Feroz s/o Mohammad Talaga
- 35-year-old Sheikh Saleem s/o Sheikh Rafeeq
- 32-year-old Sheikh Arif s/o Sheikh Rasheed
- 63-year-old Sheikh Yusuf s/o Sheikh Naseer
- 35-year-old Isaaq s/o Kayyum
- 25-year-old Sarwar s/o Waheed Khan
- 26-year-old Shakeer Khilji s/o Shakeel Khilji
- 41-year-old Mohammad Aijaz s/o Sheikh Nisaar
- 35-year-old Mohammad Irshad s/o Amir Mohammad
- 31-year-old Mohammad Waseem s/o Mohammad Razaq Shah
- 29-year-old Sheikh Zakir s/o Sheikh Shabbir
- 45-year-old Ismail s/o Nathu Pinjara
- 35-year-old Shakeel s/o Hanif
- 42-year-old Ajeez s/o Sher Khan
- 45-year-old Mohammad Ishaq s/o Nathu
- 33-year-old Mubariq s/o Jalaluddin
- 30-year-old Istyaq Khan s/o Munawar Khan
- 33-year-old Raees Khan s/o Rashid Khan
- 37-year-old Ashraf s/o Haneef
- 27-year-old Salman s/o Sheikh Hafeez
- 53-year-old Mohammad Azhar s/o Mohammad Usmaan
- 59-year-old Haroon s/o Yusuf
- 42-year-old Shabbir s/o Jabbar
- 52-year-old Majeed Khan s/o Sher Khan
- 49-year-old Abdullah s/o Sheikh Tantu
- 51-year-old Sallauddin s/o Sheikh Ahmed
- 28-year-old Khalik s/o Rafeeq
- 31-year-old Sheikh Zafar s/o Sheikh Haroon
- 31-year-old Imran s/o Rafeeq (Absconding)
- 31-year-old Farooq Khan, s/o Rafeeq Tau (Absconding)
As per reports, the counsel of the convicts said they would appeal in the High Court against the judgment.
