The Diphu District Court on Monday convicted 12 persons and acquitted 4 others in the 2013 Jhankar Saikia mob lynching case.
The quantum of punishments would be pronounced on Friday.
After the hearing, Special Public Prosecutor (PP), Durga Prasad Jaiswal briefed the media outside the court.
“The court has pass judgement against 12 accused, who were found guilty and the rest were found not guilty,” Jaiswal said.
“They have been prosecuted under section 147, 341, 323, 302 and 149 of the IPC. The quantum of punishment will be announced by the court on February 28,” Jaiswal added.
Those who are acquitted by the court are Assistant Sub-Inspector Ramesh Chandra Nath, Havildar Harun Bora, Sarthe Bey and Dilip Teron.
Those who have been found guilty are Biswajit Hanse, Sarsing Teron, Robinson Teron, Sanjay Rongphar, Bikram Tisso, Enush Timung, Longsing Teron, Binong Terang, Sarlongbi Terang, Philipson Taro, Hitesh Rabha and Mangal Sing Rongphar.
“The justice has been served through it took seven long years and I feel that Jhankar’s soul will get salvation,” said Haren Chandra Saikia, Jhankar’s father while talking to Northeast Now.
“Even if we cannot get back our son but we hope that today’s judgment will be considered as a precedent that no such tragedy will occur again,” he added.
Regarding the acquittal, he said that he still has not gone through the detailed judgement and once it is made public then only he can comment on it.
“Being appointed as a special public prosecutor, in this case, was a matter of great responsibility. I have done my level best so that the victim’s family get the justice,” said Jaiswal.
The 16-year-old, Jhankar Saikia and his lawyer-father Haren Saikia were thrashed on June 25, 2013, by a group of auto-rickshaw drivers after they had refused to pay Rs 30 instead of the regular fare of Rs 20.
The incident happened in the presence of the police who did “nothing” to stop the auto-rickshaw drivers.
The critically injured teenager was shifted to a private hospital in Diphu where he succumbed to his injuries on July 1, 2013.
The Diphu Police Station registered a case (No 95/13) under Sections 294, 325, 307, 109, 147, 148, 149, 337, 338, 302 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code.
The trial of the case began five years later in March 2018.
