Tripura man assaulted over weight of meat dies a week later

The meat seller fell sick a day after the assault and was admitted to Indira Gandhi Memorial hospital in Agartala on June 13.

A meat seller in Tripura died on Saturday from injuries received in an assault by one of his customers on June 12 over the weight of meat and the accused is absconding.

The victim was thrashed inside his meat shop with a wooden plank used as a base to cut meat. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The incident took place at Kalikapur area in West District when Samiran Das (45) was thrashed inside his meat shop with a wooden plank used as a base to cut meat by one Shimul Das, a customer. Samiran had recently switched to selling meat since he could no longer earn a living pulling a rickshaw during Covid-19 lockdown, police said.

Samiran’s wife Basanti Das lodged a complaint four days after the incident on June 16, following which, a case under Section 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) of the Indian Penal Code IPC was registered. According to the complaint, Samiran fell sick a day after the assault and was admitted to Indira Gandhi Memorial hospital in Agartala. After three days of treatment, he was referred to Govind Ballabh Pant hospital, where he died on Saturday.

“The deceased might have sustained internal head injuries due to the assault. The accused is absconding. We will register a murder case now. We hope to arrest him soon,” said Biswajit Das, officer in charge of Ramnagar police outpost.