Bihar: Five held as engineering student dies after being thrashed by villagers

PATNA: A 22-year-old engineering student, Dharmendra Kumar, died on Thursday after being thrashed by a group of people on Wednesday evening over a minor scuffle. Five people, including a village chaukidar, have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the crime at a village in Muzaffarpur district.
The incident took place at Raghunathpur Donma village under Sakra police station late on Wednesday evening. Trouble started around 6 pm when a youth was intercepted and beaten up by some villagers for hitting the motorbike of Dharmendra, who studied at an engineering college in Haryana.
Even though the initial scuffle was broken up by the police, the youth, who was beaten up, later returned with some people and attacked Dharmendra’s brother-in-law Om Prakash Gupta’s house where he was staying since returning from Haryana due to the nationwide lockdown. Dharmendra is from neighbouring Samastipur district.
In the altercation Dharmendra and his sister Amrita Kumari, an anganwadi sevika, received serious injuries and were admitted to a local hospital where he died on Thursday afternoon. The two groups pelted stones and attacked each other with lathis. A police team led by sub-inspector Lalan Kumar was also attacked with stones causing severe injuries to him and five constables. The police then baton charged to bring the situation under control.
Inspector general (Tirhut range) Ganesh Kumar said additional forces have been deployed at the village. “The village chaukidar’s role in the violent clash, which led to the death of the youth, is being verified. The deceased Dharmendra Kumar belonged to neighbouring Samastipur district,” he added.
The SHO of Sakra police station Rajesh Kumar said altogether 15 people, including chaukidar Raju Rai, have been named as accused in the FIR lodged by the deceased’s relatives.
The SHO claimed that Dharmendra was hiding at his relative’s house after he stabbed a man hailing from his native village Dhudhpura under Mufassil police station in Samastipur district. “A case under 307 (attempt to murder) is lodged with the Samastipur Mufassil police station against Dharmendra,” he added.
On the other hand, the deceased’s brother in-law Om Prakash Gupta, who also received injuries in the attack, alleged that some residents were pressuring the family to shift Dharmendra to a quarantine centre ever since he returned from Haryana about two weeks ago. “As he was asymptomatic and had already undergone thermal screening, we didn’t budge to their pressure, which antagonised them,” he said.
Gupta alleged that the chaukidar sided with the rival group and was exerting pressure to shift his relative to a nearby quarantine centre. “The role of the local police in the entire episode should be probed by senior police officers,” he said.
Muzaffarpur SSP Jayant Kant visited the village to take stock of the situation. “The situation is well under control and a special investigation team has been formed to probe the case,” the SSP said.