Eight persons have been arrested in connection with the assault of a Muslim cloth vendor, who died of his injuries in Bihar’s Nawada district on Friday, The Hindu reported on Monday.
Mohammad Athar Hussain, a resident of Gagan Diwan village, sold clothes on a bicycle. He was assaulted on December 5 near Bhattapar village under the Roh police station.
According to his brother, Mohammad Shakib Alam, Hussain was intercepted by a group of villagers who asked his name and profession before attacking him.
The police had registered a case on December 5, based on the complaint of Hussain’s wife, Shabnam Parveen. She named 10 persons in her complaint, alleging that they had assaulted her husband, suspecting him to be a thief.
The case was registered under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to unlawful assembly, rioting, grievous hurt and use of dangerous means, and abetment and common intention. Murder charges were added to the case later.
On Saturday, Nawada Superintendent of Police Abhinav Dhiman stated that a special team formed under the Sadar sub-divisional police officer had arrested four persons accused in the case within 24 hours of the complaint.
“Based on further investigations, four more accused involved in the case were arrested on December 13,” stated the office of the superintendent of police. “To date, a total of eight accused have been arrested in the case. All of them have subsequently been remanded to judicial custody.”
Searches were being conducted to arrest the remaining persons accused in the matter, it added.
In a video recorded after the incident, Hussain said that the assailants first asked his name, pulled him off his bicycle, robbed him of Rs 18,000 and assaulted him. He said the size of the group later grew to about 15 to 20 persons.
He also alleged that the mob had “stripped him to check his private parts and branded his body with a heated iron rod”.
Hussain was first taken to a primary health centre in Roh, where he was referred to the Nawada Sadar Hospital before being shifted to Pawapuri VIMS, where he succumbed to his injuries on Friday night.
Meanwhile, a cross-complaint filed by one of the persons accused in the case, Sikandar Yadav, alleged that Hussain had attempted a burglary on the night of the assault. The police said they are examining the complaint.
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