Thaindian News

Patna, April 17 (IANS) In yet another case of ‘mob justice’, two people suspected of committing a theft were lynched by a mob in a Bihar village, the police said Thursday. The victims, identified as Mahant Nat and Butan Nat, were brutally beaten after they were caught allegedly while stealing a water pump set Wednesday night in Pokhra village of Siwan district, about 150 km from here. Both victims belonged to the economically weaker nomadic Nat community.

“An angry mob of villagers caught them and beat them to death with bricks, bamboo sticks and iron rods. One eye of Mahant Nat was gouged out by the mob,” police sources said.

The police have lodged a case of murder, without identifying any suspects.

In the last three months, over a dozen cases of lynching have been reported across the state. Mob justice is becoming increasingly common in rural Bihar.

Over three dozen lynching incidents were reported last year and many more may have gone unreported, the police source said.

The worst lynching was reported in September last year when 10 men from the underprivileged Keri community were beaten to death in Vaishali district on the suspicion that they were thieves. Later, a high-level probe found that the men were innocent.