By IANS,
Patna : Residents of a Bihar village lynched a man on suspicion that he was a thief and then paraded around the village displaying his body, the police said Tuesday.
Dharmendra Nat and Pradip Dom, both dalits, were beaten with bricks and sticks by a mob in Anantkamtol village in Muzaffarpur district, about 80 km from here, Monday. The villagers claimed to have caught the men while they were fleeing a house after stealing valuables.
Nat died of the beatings and Dom was taken to a primary health care centre in a critical condition.
“Nat and Dom were brutally beaten by a mob Monday. The villagers alleged that they were trying to flee after stealing. Nat died on the spot and Dom was seriously injured,” Muzaffarpur Superintendent of Police Sudhansu Kumar told IANS on telephone.
After killing Nat, the mob took out a procession and paraded the victim’s body. They told the police that they didn’t regret killing him since he was a thief.
The police have registered a case, but have not named any suspect yet.
Over 40 cases of lynching were reported from Bihar villages last year. One of the most shocking incidents occurred in September 2007 when 10 men from the backward Kueri community were beaten to death in Vaishali district on the suspicion that they were thieves. Later, a high-level probe found that the lynched men had been innocent anyway.