Mob lynches two suspected cattle thieves in Jharkhand, one ‘child lifter’ in Bengal

RANCHI / KOLKATA: Three persons were lynched in two separate incidents on Wednesday. While two were beaten to death in a Jharkhand village over alleged cattle theft, one person was killed in West Bengal’s Malda district over charges of child lifting.

In the first case, police said villagers intercepted five thieves with stolen cattle but three managed to escape. Two were caught and lynched.

“Thirteen buffaloes were allegedly stolen from Dhullu village on Tuesday night following which an alarm was raised. Two people were caught red-handed with 13 buffaloes from Bankatti village while the other three managed to escape. The two persons were taken to Dhullu village where they were beaten up by the villagers with bamboo sticks and stones,” said Godda SP Rajiv Ranjan Singh.

Both of them died on the spot, he said, adding that the bodies were sent for postmortem and investigation was on. The two persons were identified as Murtaza (30) and Chiragh-ud-din (45).

Murtaza’s father Halim Ansari, though, alleged conspiracy behind the killing. He claimed his son was a cattle trader who also used to sell coal during off-seasons. The relatives of Charagh-ud-din too claimed he was a cattle trader.

The police have so far arrested four people and all 13 buffaloes have been recovered. In the Malda case, the victim is said to be a homeless man.