HYDERABAD: The Bibinagar police arrested six persons at Jiyapally village on Thursday and are searching for 12 others in connection with the lynching of a 32-year-old suspected thief by a mob which was instigated by viral social media messages that notorious criminals were on the prowl. The victim, Nimmala Balakrishna Goud (32) was a driver hailing from Korremula village. On Tuesday he went to the home of a relative P Kousalya at Jiyapally.
Around 8 pm he went to the village’s outskirts to attend to call of nature and, while walking back to the house, a villager, Dharavath Mallesh, saw him and suspected him to be one of the gang of thieves about which the social media was flooded with messages. When informed them, the villagers rushed towards Goud whom they accosted near Durgamma temple.
Without giving him a chance to speak, they pounced on Goud and attacked him brutally with sticks. Goud had his leg fractured and received severe bleeding injuries. The mob immediately took him to the village and abandoned him there. Some more villagers, who got to know about the alleged suspect in their area, rushed to Goud and beat him. Sarpanch’s son Y Balakrishna, who got to know about the incident, had Goud shifted to Korremula village on a bike but Goud succumbed to the injuries. A murder case was registered following a complaint lodged by Goud’s father Narasimha.
Bhongir DCP E Ramchandra Reddy said on Thursday that D Mallesh (25), D Srinu (35), D Ravi (26), Mudu Ravu (23), D Sriknath (19) and Md Jahangir (24) were arrested and remanded in custody. A search was launched to nab 12 more accused who were on the run, he said.
Another man attacked on suspicion of being a thief
IN yet another case of mob violence, a person with mental disability was attacked by a local municipal councillor and his associates who suspected him to be a thief. The Badangpet councillor Eranki Venu Goud (30) and two others have been arrested and a search is on for others. Goud along with his associates Shareef Qureshi (38) and Ayub Khan (33) among others rounded up one Jannathul Nayeem Riyazul and questioned him of his whereabouts. When he failed to answer, they attacked him with sticks. The Pahadishareef police received information and rushed to the spot. He was rushed immediately to a nearby hospital and got him treated. However, Riyazul could not provide further details about him to the police also.