The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday rejected the bail plea of Naresh Kumar, the prime accused in the 2017 mob lynching of 16-year-old Junaid Khan, who was killed aboard a Mathura-bound train.
Chief Justice Sheel Nagu, while refusing bail, observed that “a safe and secure atmosphere ought to be extended to the eyewitnesses to be examined before the request of bail is considered,” underlining the gravity of the offence.
On June 22, 2017, Junaid, his brother Hasim, and cousins Moin and Mausim were returning from Eid shopping in Delhi when they were attacked on the train near Faridabad. An altercation over seats escalated into communal slurs, followed by a violent assault with knives. Junaid was stabbed multiple times and later declared dead after being thrown out of the train at Asaoti railway station.
Initially described as a “seat dispute,” subsequent accounts revealed the assault was motivated by religious hate. The killing shocked the nation and became one of the earliest reported cases of mob lynching on communal grounds in India.
Following the FIR, four men — Rameshwar, Pardeep, Gaurav, and Chander Prakash — were arrested in July 2017, while Naresh Kumar, a security guard from Palwal, was nabbed in Maharashtra. All were charged with murder, culpable homicide, and promoting enmity on religious grounds.
The four co-accused were released on bail after about a year, but Naresh Kumar’s bail has been repeatedly denied by the High Court.
