A court in eastern Assam’s Jorhat convicted 25 people for lynching a 73-year-old doctor more than a year ago.
A mob had assaulted and killed Deben Dutta, the senior medical officer of a dispensary in Teok Tea Estate on August 31, 2019, for allegedly delaying the treatment of a plantation worker named Somra Majhi.
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Dutta died on the way to the Jorhat Medical College and Hospital.
The police had filed charge-sheet against 32 people but Jorhat district and sessions judge Robin Phukan acquitted six while one had died during the trial. The quantum of punishment against the 25 convicted on October 12 would be pronounced on October 19.
Sections dealing with murder, wrongful confinement, rioting, use of criminal force to deter public servants on duty and unlawful assembly of people with common objective had been slapped on the accused. Relevant Sections of the Indian Penal Code were read with those of The Assam Medicare Service Persons & Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence & Damage to Property) Act, 2011.
The lynching had triggered a series of protests, with the Indian Medical Association threatening to withdraw doctors from tea estate hospitals if prompt action was not taken against the guilty.
A four-member special investigation team headed by Siva Prasad, Deputy Inspector-General of Eastern Range, had probed and concluded the case in a “record” time of 21 days and filed a 602-page charge-sheet on September 21, 2019.
