Silchar, Dec. 30: In a rare and bizarre incident, a mob of hundreds dragged a 35-year-old alleged rape accused out of the Dimapur Central Jail, paraded him naked for around 7km and lynched him.
The shocking incident that took place in Nagaland's commercial hub on March 5 this year made national and international headlines, sparking off a series of protests.
Assam was also put on alert after protests seeking justice broke out in Karimganj and Nagaon districts and several minority pockets . Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi condemned the attack and took up the matter with Union home minister Rajnath Singh and his Nagaland counterpart T.R. Zeliang.
On September 7, a division bench of acting Chief Justice K. Sreedhar Rao and Justice Prasanta Kumar Saikia of Gauhati High Court ordered a CBI inquiry into the lynching.
The court passed the order in connection with two public interest litigations filed by Rajib Kalita and Nilim Dutta.
Advocate Bhaskar Dev Konwar, who represented Kalita in the court, said the division bench directed the CBI to complete its investigation within six months and submit a report to the court.
Syed Sarif Uddin Khan, alias Farid, was arrested by Nagaland police on February 24 after an FIR was filed by a girl from Nagaland accusing him of raping her.
Sources had said that a huge gathering assembled in front of the Dimapur Central Jail on March 4, demanding that Farid be handed over to them.
The frenzied mob suddenly attacked the jail and dragged Farid out and beat him to death.
Farid was also accused of being an illegal immigrant from Bangladesh. The incident sent shock waves across the nation.
Farid's family members said he was a bona fide citizen of the country and a son of a former armyman. Sarif's elder brothers - Kamal Uddin Khan, 40 and Jamal Uddin Khan, 38 - also work in the Indian army.
Farid did his schooling from Banskandi Madrasa in Cachar district before he started his own business.
He was living in Dimapur for the past eight years, where he had owned an automobile shop . He had married a Naga woman four years ago and they had a three-year-old daughter.
His family sources at Bosla village in Assam's Karimganj district had claimed that extortionists had framed him in the rape case.
An affidavit filed by the Nagaland government at the high court in May had stated that 56 people, suspected to be involved in the storming of the jail and lynching Farid, have been arrested and a judicial inquiry into the causes and circumstances that led to the incident has been ordered to fix responsibility for the lapses, if any.
The affidavit also said the deputy commissioner, the superintendent of police and a senior superintendent of police of Dimapur Central Jail were suspended immediately after the incident and that further action would be taken after the report of the judicial inquiry is submitted.
It added that a lookout notice for 32 people has been published in local dailies by the police.
"We are still awaiting justice. My last wish is that the culprits involved in the murder of my son get exemplary punishment so that such incidents do not recur," said Jubeda Khan, Farid's mother. The deadline for the probe report is March 7, 2016.
