Assam man on way home past midnight lynched on suspicion of being goat thief

Darrang SP Prakash Sonowal said the incident took place in the district’s Sipajhar area at about 3am on Thursday.

SILCHAR: A 45-year-old man suspected to be a goat thief was caught and thrashed to death past Wednesday midnight in Assam’s Darrang district, police said on Thursday. Fourteen people have been arrested in connection with the man’s death.

The familu of Mojibur Ali told the police that he was on his way home after attending to an emergency when he was attacked by a mob in Sipajhar (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Darrang superintendent of police (SP) Prakash Sonowal said the incident took place in the district’s Sipajhar area at about 3am on Thursday.

Police identified the dead man as Mojibur Ali who lived in a nearby village. His family told the police that Mojibur Ali was on his way home after attending to an emergency when he was attacked in Sipajhar.

The sequence of events that led the local residents to spot Mojibur Ali passing through the area at 3am and conclude that he may be out to steal their goat is not clear.

“We demand proper investigation,” his family told local media outlets.

Sonowal said by the time the police reached the spot and dispersed the angry mob, Mojibur Ali was unconscious. He was taken to the hospital by the police. He did not survive.

“We identified 14 individuals and arrested them under murder charges and further investigation is going on,” Sonowal said. He added the body was sent for postmortem and the 14 arrested by the Darrang police station staffers are being interrogated. A case under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered.

The victim’s family alleged that he was threatened earlier too and was falsely accused of theft in the past.