Amid a string of mob lynching episodes, a 20-year-old man was beaten to death in Bihar’s Rohtas district on Tuesday for attempting to rob railway officials.
Reportedly, the incident occurred when the lynching victim, Pankaj Goswami, allegedly tried to snatch a bag with Rs 24 lakh from Booking Assistant Ashok Singh, who was at a bank to deposit the revenue from ticket sales at the Sasaram station. According to the police, Goswami also opened fire at Ashok, injuring him and one other woman.
However, when he attempted to escape with the bag, locals in the vicinity raised an alarm and caught hold of him. Soon, a mob gathered and started attacking Goswami with sticks, stones and sharp objects. Goswami reportedly died within ten minutes. The police later recovered six live bullets from the deceased.
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According to News18, this is the sixth incident of mob lynching that has been reported in the state in the past five days alone. Officials say that the rising number of lynchings come amid a spate of gangrape cases, which seem to have created an atmosphere of frustration, the report added.
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Reportedly, on Sunday, one Rupesh Jha was also lynched on the suspicion of being a thief near Ramnagar village in Sitamarhi district. Although Jha pleaded guilty and sought mercy, the mob killed him as he had several cases against him. The police registered an FIR against 150 people in connection with the incident.
On September 8, a woman was lynched by a mob in Sasaram for allegedly practising witchcraft. In another incident, three persons were killed by a mob in Begusarai district on September 7, over suspicions of kidnapping a Class V girl student from her school.
