Gujarat A court in Nagaon Assam has delivered a significant verdict in a mob lynching case In 2018 two youths from Guwahati were killed in the Karbi Anglong district of Assam. In this case 20 convicts have been sentenced to life imprisonment. Fines have also been imposed on all the convicts. On Monday, Nagaon District Sessions Judge DJ Mahanta convicted 20 out of the 45 accused under various sections of the IPC. These sections include murder by an unlawful assembly rioting voluntarily causing hurt and obstructing a public servant from discharging their official duties.
Stating that the prosecution failed to prove the charges against them the court acquitted 25 other individuals Advocate Manas Sarania stated that the court has sentenced the convicts to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹20,000 on each of them. We will challenge this verdict in the Guwahati High Court he added
The counsel for the convicts argued that there was insufficient evidence in this case to warrant a conviction on charges of murder. They contended that there was no intent to kill the victims therefore the accused should have been convicted only under the IPC charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Special Public Prosecutor Z. Kamar remarked To be honest I am not satisfied with this verdict as I believe this was a case falling under the rarest of the rare category However the court ruled that this was not a rarest of the rare case and consequently handed down sentences of life imprisonment.
In connection with this case the police had arrested 48 individuals. Three of the accused were minors and have been placed in a juvenile home in Jorhat. This verdict comes seven years and ten months after the incident on June 8 2018 in which sound engineer Nilotpal Das (29) and businessman Abhijit Nath (31) were beaten to death by a mob. This incident occurred at Kangthilangso, under the jurisdiction of the Dokmoka Police Station in Karbi Anglong when a mob suspected them of being child abductors
Das and Nath were apprehended in Panjuri after visiting Kangthilangso for a picnic. There locals dragged them out of their car and subjected them to brutal violence. In a video that went viral on social media the duo was seen pleading desperately asserting that they had not come to Karbi Anglong to abduct children. The police transported both victims to a hospital but they succumbed to their injuries en route. The first hearing of the case took place at the Diphu Court on November 8 2018 following which the Guwahati High Court transferred the matter to the Court of the District and Sessions Judge Nagaon
