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Day after lynching, family denies relation with victims, refuse to perform last rites
Two Dalit brothers were lynched by a mob in Rohtas district of Bihar on Thursday. They were accused of entering a house after burrowing through a wall to conduct theft.
A day after two Dalit men were lynched on suspicion that they were thieves, no family member turned up at Sasaram sadar hospital in Bihar’s Rohtas district to claim the bodies and perform last rites.
Police said the bodies were kept in the hospital mortuary after the post mortem examination on Thursday.
Baban Musahar, 40, and Murahu Musahar, 35, were lynched by a mob at Parasia village in Kochas police station of Rohtas district, about 170 km south-west of state capital, Patna, on Thursday. They were accused of entering a house after burrowing through a wall to conduct theft.
The two men were brothers and belonged to Musahar caste, classified as the most depressed among the Dalits and so poor that they were traditionally known to subsist on a diet of mice which they used to hunt for a living.
Kochas police station SHO Satish Kumar said when he visited Sirisiya in Karagahar police station area of the district, where the family of the victims was staying, the wives of the Baban Musahar and Murahu Musahar denied any relation with the slain siblings and refused to take the bodies.
“Even after I offered to make all arrangements for bringing the body to the village and helping them perform the last rites, they did not relent,” the station house officer (SHO) said.
Kumar said under the rules, the police could preserve unclaimed or unidentified body for 72 hours. “We will wait till evening and then cremate the bodies in accordance with the law,” Kumar added.
A murder case against unidentified persons had been registered at Kochas police station, he said, adding that police were trying hard to identify the accused..
