3 more detained for lynching mentally unstable man

Guwahati: Three more persons were detained on Sunday for allegedly lynching a mentally unstable man in Assam’s Dhemaji district on August 31 on the suspicion that he stole children.
The three were identified by police as Monikanta Pegu of Rakut Koke village, Nayanmoni Kuli of Gali Santipur and Ramjane Pame of Dikhari village. Earlier, the police had detained seven people in this connection. The victim, Golap Barua (30), was thrashed to death at Rakut Koke village in Dhemaji.
Dhemaji DSP (headquarters) AT Doley said, “Around 7.30pm on August 31, we received information about a mob assaulting Golap Barua. When our team reached the area, he had already sustained severe injuries and lost consciousness. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared him dead. Investigation is still under way.”
The deceased had allegedly snatched a child from the mother’s lap, following which the woman had raised an alarm. On hearing her cries, a large crowd gathered and attacked Barua. “Initial investigation revealed that Barua had been mentally unstable for the past 15 years. When people started questioning him, he might have failed to give any satisfactory answer, which in turn angered them. This is a clear case of lynching,” Doley said.
Last month, an absconding undertrial prisoner, Raju Baruah alias Girija (40), accused in a rape and murder case, was lynched by a mob in Assam’s Lakhimpur district.
In June 2018, two youths from Guwahati, Nilotpal Das (29), a sound engineer, and his businessman friend, Abhijeet Nath (30), were lynched by a group of villagers in Karbi Anglong on the suspicion that they were child abductors.