A mob in Jorhat city in Assam lynched a man for allegedly hitting two women near a tea garden on Saturday, NDTV reported on Sunday. The mob also injured the man’s friend, who had to be hospitalised.
The deceased was identified as Debasish Gogoi from Nakachari Milgaon near Mariani town, The Hindu reported. He succumbed to his injuries at Jorhat Medical College and Hospital, 20 km away from the scene of the crime. Gogoi’s friend, Aditya Das, is undergoing treatment for his injuries at the facility.
R Dutta, the policeman in charge of the Deberapar Police Outpost, said that they are questioning four people detained in connection with the incident. A case has been registered against the accused, he said.
Gogoi and Das were headed to a picnic spot, through the Gabharu Parbat Tea Estate, near Assam’s border with Nagaland. The watchman of the tea estate, however, prevented the duo from proceeding to the picnic spot. A quarrel began, and the duo hit two female plantation workers on their way back home.
But Das gave a different version of events. “Our two-wheeler skidded and an accident happened in front of the garden’s tea factory,” Das told The Hindu. “A crowd gathered and began raining blows and kicks on us.”
The incident came days after five men allegedly beat a vegetable vendor to death in Assam’s Kamrup district on May 24. The police arrested two main accused. One of the accused is the brother of a local Asom Gana Parishad leader.
Recent cases of mob lynching
On April 22, two brothers who had recently been released from prison in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak were beaten to death in Assam’s Baksa district. The incident, which took place in Athiabari village, may have taken place due to “village enmity”, a senior district official told Scroll.in.
On May 11, villagers in Dumka district of Jharkhand beat a man to death and critically injured his companion, accusing them of stealing a goat.
In February, the West Bengal Police booked five people in Malda district for lynching a farmer because his seven-year-old son damaged a mobile phone.
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