Two officers and 30 policemen were mute witness to the lynching of four Muslims in Jharkhand on May 18. Evidence of the same is video clips of the killing which have surfaced and have been accessed by the Indian Express.
Jharkhand lynching: Video grab shows ASI Gope, his face to camera; Gope at station (right) and in-charge T P Kushwaha. Subham Dutta
According to the report in the Express, as the four were lynched over five hours during the early hours of May 18, present on the spot alongside a mob was a Deputy Superintendent of police, a Circle Inspector, two Assistant Sub-inspectors and at least 30 policemen.
The Indian Express tracked down two of the policemen who are seen speaking to the mob in videos of the incident and also spoke to several of the eyewitnesses to piece together the sequence of events that ended with the deaths in Shobhapur of Naim (35), Sheikh Sajju (25), Sheikh Siraj (26) and Sheikh Halim (28).
It’s not a case of the police looking the other way; they were in fact watching the lynching unfold in front of their eyes.
“Please, I beg you. Don’t talk to me. I am just a small officer. I was there but I cannot talk to you. Please contact my superiors”, Sashibhusan Gope, the ASI on duty at the Rajnagar station pleaded with the Indian Express correspondent.
Anta Tudu, the mukhiya of Shobhapur, said, “We rushed out of our homes on hearing that the child-lifters had been caught. Police arrived in time and spoke to the villagers for a while, but there was no action on their part. It is sad that such an incident happened.
Meanwhile taking suo moto notice of the lynchings, the National Human Rights Commission has issued a notice to Jharkhand's Director General of Police calling for a detailed report within four weeks.
Read the full Indian Express report.
Also read: Adivasis lynch 7 persons in a day in Jharkhand over child abduction rumours.