On Tuesday (12th March), a court in Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur convicted and sentenced ten people to life in jail for lynching a 45-year-old ‘meat seller’ identified as Qasim Qureshi in June 2018 over claims of cow slaughter. The sentence was pronounced by the bench of Additional District Judge (POCSO) Shweta Dixit.
Another victim, 62-year-old Samaydeen, was hurt during the incident. As per the reports, the accused persons were convicted under sections 302 (murder) 149 (unlawful assembly), 307 (attempt to murder) 149, 147 (rioting), 148 (being armed with a deadly weapon), and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Notably, the victims did not seek death sentence for the convicts and said that they did not have any enmity against the convicts and only wanted justice.#Hapur #HapurLynching
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) March 12, 2024
All convicts Rakesh, Hariom, Yudhishthir, Rinku, Karanpal, Manish, Lalit, Sonu, Kaptan, and Mangeram of Dhaulana’s Bajhaida village have been sentenced to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 59,000 each.
Earlier, in a written statement to the Court, the primary accused, Rakesh Sisodia had denied any role in the attack and had claimed he was not present at the spot when the alleged lynching happened in the year 2018. Residents then stated that rumors of cow slaughter caused the lynching but the police dismissed the claim.
The complainant and victims were represented by Adv Vrinda Grover, Adv Soutik Banerjee, Devika Tulsiani, Haji Yusuf Qureshi (Late) and Mohd Furquan Qureshi.
