A Ramgarh court on Wednesday awarded life-term punishment to all 11 convicts in the Alimuddin Ansari lynching case. The list of convict includes BJP’s district media cell in-charge Nityanand Mahato.

The case was fast-tracked, under the Jharkhand High Court’s watch, and judgment was passed in less than nine months.

Ansari was lynched in public view on June 29, 2017, over allegations that he was carrying beef (cow meat) in his car. A group intercepted his Maruti van in Ramgarh district’s Chitarpur area in the morning, attacked him, set the van on fire and threw the meat he was carrying on the road. The police had charge-sheeted 12 people – of which one was a minor, one a BJP leader and three members of a cow vigilante group.

Besides Mahato, Vicky Saw, Sikander Ram, Vikram Prasad, Raju Kumar, Rohit Thakur, Kapil Thakur and Uttam Kumar were convicted under at least six sections of the Indian Penal Code, including murder, rioting, and rioting with deadly weapons. Members of “Gau Raksha Samiti” – Deepak Mishra, Santosh Singh and Chhotu Verma – were convicted under charges of criminal conspiracy.

The 11 accused were convicted on March 16 and the quantum of punishment was announced on Wednesday. Additional Public Prosecutor Sushil Kumar Shukla said: “The chargesheet was filed on September 17 and the charges framed on September 22. The prosecution produced 19 witnesses and a CD as evidence, among other material. We got support from the administration and the police, due to which we ensured the conviction in a short time.”