Guwahati: A man was lynched to death and other three were injured critically by a mob on Thursday in Biswanath district of Assam. The mob took them to be cattle thieves beat them killing one person on the spot and injuring others. The arrested ones belong to the Adivasi community who are employees of Diplunga Tea Estate located somewhat 250 km from Guwahati.

The police sources said that on Thursday, a mob stopped a carrier-van and started beating up the people who were traveling in it after they were suspected to be carrying away theft cattle. Those beaten includes Deben Rajbongshi, Bijoy Nayak, Phoolchand Sahu and Pujen Rajbongshi. Among those, Deben died due to the injuries. Other three were taken to the hospital and were admitted there on. All of them belonged to the Adivasi community.

Another person, the fifth one namely Papu Nayak, was also there in the van and had managed to flee from the place of incidence and was believed to have been leading them.

A viral video related to the incidence shows victims bleeding and asking for help and mercy.

“We were in formed by the villagers that they caught cattle thieves with a van and cattle and some of the locals are brutally beating them. It was about 4:20 am that we got this phone call. We sent our team that took about 20 minutes to reach and rescued them. The video is part of the investigation and all angles are being looked at,” said senior police officer Diganta Kumar Choudhury told News Agencies.

According to the police, the two cows recovered from the incident place belong to Shankar Tanti who is also a resident of the area and the attack happened apparently after an alarm was raised by Tanti.

An FIR was filed by Tanti with the allegation that his cattle were stolen and the five men were named in it. Alongside that, the police too have also registered a case criminal case of mob lynching.

The brutal incident comes very close after the killing of two Assamese young men in Karbi and Anglong districts of Assam after local people thought that they were child-abductors after seeing social media rumors. The incident also happened after a nationwide unrest over the issue of incidents of mob lynching that have compelled the Apex Court to direct the center and state governments to utilize an iron hand in such cases.

You May Also Read: Govt Seeking To Amend Motor Vehicles Act 1989 To Permit Hybrid And Electric Conversion Kits For Fossil-Fuel Based Vehicles