Patna, March 4 (IANS) In one more instance of ‘mob justice’ in Bihar, a group of people in Bhagalpur district Wednesday chased three suspected criminals and snatched one from a police vehicle and lynched them, officials said.
The victims had allegedly robbed a truck driver and demanded extortion from a businessman in Balughat minutes before they were beaten to death at a rural market near Ratanganj in Bhagalpur, about 200 km from here, according to the officials.

“The four were surrounded by a mob when they were trying to flee after looting the truck driver. People beat three to death on the spot. While the police managed to take one alleged criminal into custody, another angry mob forcibly took him from the police Jeep and beat him to death,” a district administration official said.

Police sources in Bhagalpur said that the four victims belonged to a gang involved in extorting money from businessmen dealing in sand.

Mob violence in the name of instant justice is becoming common in rural Bihar. Over three dozen cases of lynching were reported from the state last year. The last four months have seen over two dozen such cases.

In the worst case, 10 men from the underprivileged Kueri community were beaten to death in Vaishali district in September 2007 when some people suspected they were thieves. A probe later found they were innocent.