Two Muslim men were allegedly lynched by a group of enraged villagers on suspicion of cattle theft in Jharkhand's Godda district, the police said on Wednesday, 13 June.
Finding the buffaloes missing, Murmu and other villagers gave a chase to the five people, who were caught in adjoining Bankati village with the cattle in the early hours of Wednesday.
The enraged villagers thrashed Sirabuddin Ansari (35) and Murtaza Ansari (30) to death.
Jharkhand police have registered two FIRs in connection with the incident, The Indian Express reported.
DIG (Santal Paragana) Akhilesh Kumar Jha said five people had allegedly stolen buffaloes from the house of Munshi Murmu and others in tribal-dominated Dullu village on Wednesday night.
Four persons, including Murmu, have been arrested in this connection so far. The three others managed to flee, Jha said.
Adequate police force, along with a magistrate, had been deployed in the village to maintain law and order, Jha said.
The situation in the village was under control, the officer said.
The victims were residents of Taljhari in the district, about 200 km from Ranchi, Superintendent of Police Rajeev Ranjan Singh said.
The SP, who rushed to the spot, said according to the villagers, the five people had stolen 13 buffaloes Wednesday night.
On finding their cattle missing, the villagers launched a search. The residents of Bankati, who were also alerted, caught the two accused. After lynching the duo, the accused villagers brought the bodies back to Dullu village on bicycles, the SP said.
Singh, who is camping in the village, said the stolen cattle had been recovered.
A theft case was registered based on a complaint by the villagers. Four persons, including Murmu, were booked under relevant IPC sections pertaining to murder and riot, he said.
The victims who belonged to a region dominated by Santhal tribals had been to jail previously but this “the incident was a simple case of theft”, Singh said.
Third Reported Case of Lynching in Jharkhand
Reportedly, this is the third case of lynching in the state.
In March 2016, two cattle traders were killed and their bodies hanged from a tree in Latehar while in June 2017, a beef trader was lynched by a mob comprising largely of gau rakshaks in Ramgarh district.
The mob had beaten a 55-year-old man to death on Ramgarh district on suspicion of carrying beef in his van. In the Ramgarh lynching, 11 including a local BJP leader were convicted and handed life sentences for murder in the name of cow protection.
(With inputs from The Indian Express and PTI)
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