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Ranchi youth lynched for ‘stealing’ mini-truck, 2 held, kin allege police laxity
Two men who confessed they were part of the mob that assaulted the boy have been arrested. Police says it is on the hunt for others.
A 22-year-old Jharkhand youth accused of stealing a mini-truck from Ranchi’s wholesale market on Sunday night, was lynched by labourers, leading to the youth’s death on Monday.
Police said it rescued Sachin Kumar Verma alias Golu, a resident of Nawatoli, from the clutches of a mob of about 40 labourers on Monday morning and admitted him to Ranchi's Sadar hospital, where he died.
Sachin’s family members and other residents of Nawatoli, staged a protest before the Kotwali police station, demanding arrest of the accused. They also alleged police didn’t shift Sachin to the hospital at the right time and kept him in the lockup instead.
"The deceased's mother Annu Verma informed the police that the truck owner, along with the mob, had grabbed her son and was assaulting him at Neel Ratan street, Nawatoli, behind the civil court. A police control room (PCR) van immediately went there and rescued him. Since he was injured, he was taken to the hospital where he died during the treatment," said Kotwali police station officer-in-charge Shailesh Prasad.
He said Annu Verma lodged an FIR against four known persons and 30-40 unknown people.
"We have arrested two of them namely, Alakh Deo Rai and Indrajeet Rai, who confessed that they were part of the mob that assaulted the boy," Prasad said, adding, hunt is on to arrest other perpetrators of the crime.
Prasad said the post-mortem of the body had been carried out and a thorough probe would be done to book each and everyone involved.
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Sachin's maternal sister Ranju Devi said he visited her house at Bazra locality on Sunday evening. "He took my two-wheeler along with him with a promise to return it in a few hours. He, however, didn't come back," she said.
"On Monday morning, when I received the news about his beating, I went straight to Kotwali police station only to find him in the lock up at around 6 am. He was demanding water and was pleading to me to save him. Had he been admitted to the hospital on time, he could have been saved," Ranju Devi said.
