'Religion provoked murder': Bombay HC judge gives bail to Muslim youth's killers
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has granted bail to three men accused of killing a Muslim youth in 2014, stating that the accused were "provoked in the name of religion".
According to a report in The Indian Express, the High Court bench said that the religion of the deceased, 28-year-old Mohsin Shaikh, was in fact in the "favour of the accused".
Before allegedly committing the murder on June 2, 2014, the three accused – members of the Hindu Rashtra Sena (HRS) – had attended a meeting of the group in Pune’s Hadapsar area.
The meeting was held to protest against a Facebook post that contained morphed pictures of Chhatrapati Shivaji and Bal Thackeray. At the gathering, members were told that HRS president has said that "Muslims should be thrashed for posting derogatory pictures of Shivaji Maharaj on Facebook".
Chargesheet filed in the case stated that one of the accused had also given instigating speech at the HRS meeting.
Charged by the provocative speeches at the meeting, the three accused, armed with hockey sticks, bats and stones, roamed the streets of Hadapsar on the night of June 2. They then spotted Mohsin, who was wearing a skull cap and sported a beard, and attacked him.
Granting bail to the accused, Justice Mridula Bhatkar said: “The meeting was held prior to the incident of assault. The accused, otherwise, had no other motive, such as any personal enmity, against the innocent deceased. The only fault of the deceased was that he belonged to another religion. I consider this factor in favour of the accused. Moreover, the accused do not have any criminal record and it appears that they were provoked in the name of the religion and have committed murder."
Upset with the Bombay High Court’s order, Mohsin’s family has planned to move the Supreme Court challenging the former’s order. The Maharashtra government is also likely to challenge the bail order.
Mohsin and his friend were heading home after offering prayers at a mosque on the day he was murdered. The friend survived as he fled the scene to save his life. He, however, returned to the spot and took Mohsin to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
