Three men suspected of cattle theft were allegedly lynched to death in the Khowai district of Tripura in the early hours of Sunday, police said.
According to police, the villagers of Namanjoypara found the three people in a mini-truck heading towards Agartala, carrying five cattle, around 4:30 am. A mob later chased it and managed to stop the vehicle near North Maharanipur village, where they thrashed the trio with lethal weapons and lynched two of them, while the other managed to flee.
The mob tied the two with ropes and started beating them with bamboo and wooden sticks. They were thrashed to death at the scene. Soon, the villagers got hold of the other person at Mungiakami, a tribal hamlet near North Maharanipur,and he was lynched then, the police said.
The police reached the spot immediately, and rushed the beaten up trio to a nearby hospital and then to the Agartala Government Medical College. The attending doctors declared them dead on arrival. The deceased are identified as Zayed Hussein (28), Billal Miah (30) and Saiful Islam (18), all residents of Sonamura in Sepahijala district.
Two separate cases, one for cattle smuggling and other of mob lynching have been registered at Champahower and Kayanpur police stations. Police said they had seized the mini-truck and five heads of cattle. A few head of cattle were allegedly stolen from Namanjoypara, near north Maharanipur, where the vehicle was intercepted, it said. No arrests were made yet and the investigation is underway.
The State’s main Opposition, the Communist Party of India-Marxist has condemned the incident. The party said the mob lynching was a fallout of the complete lawlessness in the State. After the installation of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government in Tripura in 2018, several lynching incidents had occurred, the party further claimed.
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The party’s State Secretariat has demanded the immediate arrest of all perpetrators, a speedy investigation, and adequate compensation to the bereaved families. Meanwhile, the State unit of the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist has also criticized the lynching of youths and demanded a judicial commission headed by a sitting judge of the High Court of Tripura probe the incident.