A 35-year-old Dalit man was lynched in Odisha’s Deogarh district after a mob accused him of killing a cow, PTI quoted the police as saying on Thursday.
Six persons have been arrested in connection with the killing, which took place in Kundeijuri village under Riamal police station area on Wednesday.
The man was identified as Kishore Chamar, a resident of neighbouring Kaunsidhipa village who worked as a cattle skinner.
His coworker, Goutam Nayak also from the same village, was injured in the assault but managed to escape, Deogarh Superintendent of Police Anil Kumar Mishra told PTI.
According to Mishra, the mob that lynched Chamar had found both the victims cutting up a cow.
The men told the mob that the cow had died naturally and they were only cutting it, but they were accused of killing the animal.
The incident came more than two months after two Dalit men in the state’s Ganjam district were assaulted and tonsured by a mob that accused them of cow smuggling.
The men, Babula Nayak (54) and Bulu Nayak (42), were transporting two cows and a calf in an auto when they were accosted by a group of cow vigilantes in Kharigumma village.
The group allegedly accused the men of smuggling cattle and demanded Rs 30,000 from them. When they refused, they were assaulted, forced to crawl and consume grass.
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