By IANS
Raipur : A day after the headman of a Chhattisgarh village was lynched by a mob, the police Saturday arrested 51 people from the village and charged them with murder.
A mob of over 100 people Friday lynched Bholaram, 47, apparently over a dispute related to a cultural programme and then set his body on fire at Niwari village, 80 km north of state capital Raipur. Bholaram belonged to the Satnami community, which comes under the scheduled caste (SC) category.
“It was a brutal murder by a mob, a total of 51 people of the village have been arrested today (Saturday) on murder charges,” Amit Kumar, superintendent of police Raipur, told reporters.
Ten people of the Satnami caste including the wife and the daughter of the victim were injured in the attack.
There was heavy police presence in the village Saturday as the authorities expected the issue might snowball into a caste conflict as the accused belonged to Sahu community, included among the Other Backward Classes (OBC) by the state government.