20 Convicted by Gauhati Court in 2018 Assam Mob Lynching Case, 25 Released

New Delhi: A special court in Assam’s Nagaon district on Monday convicted less than half the accused in the 2018 Assam mob lynching case in which two men were killed on the suspicion of being kidnappers.

The Assam Police had arrested 48 people including three juveniles who were tried separately. Of the remaining 45 accused, 20 were convicted by Nagaon District Sessions Judge D.J. Mahanta, while 25 were acquitted citing lack of evidence, the Hindustan Times reported.

Thirty-year-old Abhijit Nath and 29-year-old Nilotpal Das, who hailed from Gauhati, had gone to Karbi Anglong for a trip and were on their way back on June 8, 2018, when they were stopped by an angry mob. Acting on rumours, the armed mob dragged the duo out of the car and beat them to death.

Nath was an engineer and businessman while Das was a musician. Videos of their assault and their pleas to the mob  – that they were not child abductors but Assamese youth visiting Karbi Anglong – had sparked widespread outrage.

The final sentence of the 20 convicted will be pronounced on April 24. They have been convicted under various sections of the IPC including murder by members of an unlawful assembly, rioting, obstructing a public servant from performing their official duty and voluntarily causing hurt.

The families of Nath and Das, who were present in the court, expressed their displeasure at the release of 25 individuals and said that they will challenge the verdict in Gauhati high court.

“Everyone involved in this act of brutality should have been punished,” they were quoted as saying by the paper. 

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