Police negligence, docs' lapses led to Tabrez's death

Negligence on the part of police and doctors' lapses led to the death of Tabrez Ansari, a 24-year-old Muslim youth who was allegedly beaten up by a mob and forced to chant 'Jai Shri Ram' and 'Jai Hanuman', a three-member probe team has said.

Two police officers have already been suspended in the case and action would be taken against the erring doctors, the team said in its report.

Ansari was attacked by the mob on June 17 in Jharkhand's Seraikela-Kharswan district while returning from his aunt's place. He was tied to a pole and thrashed for over seven hours on charges of theft before being handed over to police.

A severely wounded Ansari was taken to a district hospital, which cleared him for jail.

Four days later, when his condition deteriorated, he was rushed to another hospital, where the doctors declared him "brought dead". Ansari had reportedly suffered serious injuries on the head.

"There was negligence on the part of the police and the doctors. While the police reached late, the doctors did not see (diagnose) skull injury," Seraikela-Kharswan Deputy Commissioner Anjaneyulu Dodde, who headed the three-member administration team, said on Friday.

Corroborating Dodde, a civil surgeon who has been transferred to Khunti after the incident, said that X-ray and full body scan should have been carried out, but the tests were not performed as there was no symptom of brain injury.

The probe report also stated that the police did not respond on time.

"The June 17 incident was reported to the police around 1 am, but they took actions only after 6 am," the inquiry team said, adding that viscera samples of Ansari have been sent to the forensic department in Ranchi to ascertain the cause of his death.

Eleven people, including main accused Pappu Mandal, have been arrested so far in connection with the incident.