Man gives cops the slip, lynched

GUWAHATI: In a ghastly mob lynching, a man, who escaped from prison, was hunted down, chased and beaten up in cold-blood by villagers in Assam’s Lakhimpur district on Thursday.

On being informed, police rushed to the spot and, the man was found to be severely injured, and two police personnel also received injuries while trying to rescue him from the irate mob, an official said.

“We took him to Dhakuakhana Civil Hospital, where doctors pronounced him brought dead. The two policemen have been sent to North Lakhimpur town for better treatment,” the official added. The deceased, Gerejai alias Raju Baruah, who was wanted in a number of criminal cases, including rape and murder, and two others had escaped from police custody on August 16 when they were being produced in the court of a sub-divisional judicial magistrate.

According to reports, this was the second time that he had escaped from police custody. On January 22, he had escaped with handcuffs from the Covid-19 ward of a hospital in North Lakhimpur, but was rearrested after two days. He was also injured in an encounter in September last year. Out of the two other, one was arrested on the same day, while the police had launched a manhunt to nab the other.