12 Arrested After Mob Lynches One, Injures Three in Assam

The four men had allegedly stolen two cows from Sankat Tanti and were fleeing in an auto van.

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Twelve people have been arrested for their alleged involvement in lynching a man and severely injuring three others on suspicions of cattle theft in Assam's Biswanath district, the police said on Saturday, 18 August.

Machetes, sticks and rods used in the 15 August attack were seized and police were looking for others involved in the incident, Superintendent of Police (SP) Diganta Kumar Choudhury told PTI.

In the attack, one man was killed and three others were critically injured by a mob of villagers in Biswanath district of Assam that suspected them to be cattle lifters, police had said,

As per our probe, around 15 people were involved in provocation and attack on the four persons. During the last two days, we have arrested 12 people who were involved in the lynching incident.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Diganta Kumar Choudhury told PTI

"Line number 15 of Diplonga Tea Estate, where the incident occurred, has about 40 resident families. At the time of the attack, around 50 people were present, but not all of them were involved," he said.

The SP had said earlier that as per preliminary inquiry, the four men had allegedly stolen two cows from a person named Sankat Tanti and were fleeing in an auto van which had no number plate.

"After Tanti shouted for help, the villagers intercepted the four and started thrashing the suspected thieves. We have recovered the auto van and the two cows," Choudhury said.

Village defence party personnel called the police, who reached the spot immediately and rescued the four from the clutches of the attackers and rushed them to hospital, he said.

One among them died, while the other three persons were being treated at a private hospital in Biswanath Chariali.

Kumar Choudhury, Biswanath Superintendent

The dead man was identified as Deben Rajbongshi (35) and the injured as Pujan Ghatowar (40), Phulchand Sahu (25) and Bijoy Nayak (25), he added.

All the four were residents of the nearby Gereki village, whose residents claim they were pig traders. The police registered two cases, one against the four men for allegedly lifting two cows and another against the public for beating them.

Other Cases Surfaced from Assam

Cases of vigilantism and moral policing have been reported in recent months from different Assam districts.

On 8 June, two friends, Nilotpal Das and Abhijeet Nath, who had gone to Kangthilangso waterfalls in Karbi Anglong and while returning their vehicle was stopped at Panjuri Kachari by a group of irate villagers, who pulled them out and lynched them following rumours that they were childlifters.

Ten days later a mob attacked a couple, who they claimed were unmarried, when they were travelling in a bike in Pukhurpur village of Goalpara district.

In yet another incident on 23 June, a couple was assaulted overnight by villagers of Jhumurmur in Nagaon district for allegedly having an illicit relationship before handing them over to police next day morning.

A mentally challenged woman was tied to a pole and tortured by village mob that suspected her to be a child lifter in a village under Thelamara police station in Sonitpur in Assam on 1 July.