Jharkhand: Yet again, two lynched for stealing cattle; four arrested

Ranchi: In a yet another incident of brutality, two people – allegedly stealing buffaloes – were thrashed by a mob, leading to their death in Bankatti village under Deoband Police station of Godda district of Jharkhand on Wednesday morning.

The local police have arrested four persons in connection with this case and have registered two separate FIRs, one for murder and second for stealing buffaloes against unidentified people. According to the police both the victims reportedly had past histories of stealing buffaloes.

Akhilesh Kumar Jha, DIG (Godda) said to that the victims have been identified as Mumtaza Ansari of Taljhari village and Charku Ansari of Banjhi village and their bodies have been handed over to the families after post-mortem.

Speaking to the Indian Express, Rajiv Ranjan Singh, Godda Superintendent of Police said that both the victims have allegedly stolen a dozen buffaloes from different villages and were caught while trying to sneak out at Bankatti village. The villagers spotted the alleged thieves and caught two out of five of them (IE, June 13, 2018).

Taking the custody of the buffaloes, the villagers took the charge and started thrashing the alleged thieves, which led to their death. According to police the incident occurred at a place which belonged to Santhal tribals. Extra police forces have been deployed in the area and further investigations are on.

Photo credit: The Ecologist