Mangaluru : Three police officers from the Mangaluru Rural Police Station have been suspended following their failure to prevent the lynching of a mentally unwell Muslim man named Ashraf on April 27. Originally from Kerala, Ashraf was brutally beaten to death at a local cricket ground. The police initially registered the case as an Unnatural Death Report (UDR), but a witness, Deepak, later alerted them that it was a case of mob lynching, reported the Times of India.
The incident drew severe public outrage after it was revealed that police officials present at the scene failed to act. Head Constable Chandra allegedly dismissed the witness testimony, Constable Yallalinga did not report the violence despite being present at the location, and Inspector Shivakumar failed to notify higher authorities about the incident.
Mangaluru Police Commissioner Anupam Agrawal confirmed that the case is now being investigated under the provision of ‘mob lynching’ as defined by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The suspension order states that despite having prior knowledge of the attack and the post-mortem report confirming group assault, the officers did not act appropriately or escalate the matter.
The autopsy report detailed severe injuries on Ashraf’s body, including trauma to his head, limbs, back, buttocks, and genitals. He reportedly died due to blunt force trauma inflicted by wooden logs and other objects.
Initial allegations claimed that Ashraf had shouted “Pakistan Zindabad,” prompting the assault. However, it was later clarified that Ashraf was mentally unstable and had simply taken a cup of tea placed near a cricket group. A man named Sachin, joined by Ravindra Nayak—husband of BJP corporator Sangeetha Nayak—and other members of a Hindutva outfit called “Samrat Guys,” attacked Ashraf with a cricket bat and other weapons, leading to his death.
The tragedy is compounded by the fact that Ashraf’s grandmother had died just four days before, leaving his family devastated.
