The Supreme Court of India on Monday dismissed the bail plea of one of the accused in the mob lynching of 23-year-old Salman Vohra, a Muslim man brutally killed during a cricket match in Gujarat’s Anand district in June 2024.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta rejected the application, citing that a similar request by a co-accused had already been denied. The court said it saw no reason to reconsider the matter at this stage.
Earlier, the Gujarat High Court had also denied bail to the accused, Kiran alias Holo Mafatbhai Parmar, noting the seriousness of the crime and the specific role he played. The court observed that Parmar restrained the victim by holding him by the neck while others delivered fatal blows with sticks, cricket bats, and knives.
The High Court held that the accused acted with a shared criminal intention. “The overt act on the part of the applicant-accused is nothing but sharing common intention,” the court stated, noting the group was armed with deadly weapons and inflicted injuries “indiscriminately.”
The attack occurred when Salman Vohra and two friends visited Chikhodara village to participate in a local cricket tournament. A verbal dispute reportedly erupted between Vohra’s friends and local youths, escalating into violence. When Vohra tried to intervene, he was allegedly targeted by a mob chanting communal slogans such as “Jai Shri Ram.”
Witnesses told The Quint that tensions had been building even before the match, with some local Hindu right-wing supporters expressing resentment over the strong performance of Muslim players. Eyewitness video footage from the scene, later circulated on social media, showed a cheering crowd encouraging the attackers with chants of “maaro! maaro!” (hit him), sparking widespread outrage.
The incident was widely condemned by civil society and political leaders. AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi described the killing as a clear case of mob lynching.
Following a police investigation, seven men were arrested and charged under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code, including murder, rioting, criminal intimidation, and unlawful assembly, as well as provisions of the Gujarat Police Act. Those arrested include Mehul alias Gheto Dineshbhai Parmar, Kiran alias Holo Mafatbhai Parmar, Mahendra alias Fulio Rameshbhai Vaghela, Akshay alias Ako Narsinghbhai Parmar, Ratilal Raisingbhai Parmar, Vijay alias Pakorani Mangalbhai Parmar (all residents of Chikhodara), and Ketan Mahendrabhai Patel from Vaghasi.
Salman Vohra, a garment worker and resident of Polson Compound in Anand district, had been recently married. His wife was one month pregnant with their first child at the time of his death.
