Patna: A man in Bihar was badly beaten up, had his hands tied and then hung upside down from the thick chain of a crane for allegedly stealing a mobile phone in a latest example of mob justice gripping the state.
The incident took place at Hingoli village in Darbhnaga district on Tuesday but came to knowledge of the police after video of the mob justice went viral in the social media. The police have arrested three persons in this connection.
Reports said staff of the electricity department were fitting power connections at the village when the mobile phone of one of the staffer went missing. Subsequently, he made a call on his number and the man on the other end answered the call. The caller identified the alleged thief and later caught him but he got angry when he failed to get his mobile back.
In a fit of rage, the said electricity department staff accompanied by his colleagues assaulted the alleged thief identified as Amaresh Kumar Sahni. Subsequently, they tied his hands behind his back and then hung him upside down from a crane that was used to fit power cables on the electricity poles. Witnesses said they showed no mercy even as he cried for help.
The police acted when someone uploaded the video on the social media, which soon went viral. In the video, the crane is seen lifting the alleged thief higher in the air as the mob watch.
“Soon after watching the video, the police immediately rushed to the spot and arrested three persons involved in the mob justice,” local additional district superintendent of police Dilnawaz Ahmad told the media on Thursday. He said the police also arrested the alleged thief.
Increasing incidents of mob justice has become a matter of serious concern in Bihar. In August last year, at least seven Muslim villagers were thrashed by an angry mob over rumours that they were eating beef. The incident took place at Dumra village in West Champaran district.
In June 2015, the director of a private school in Nalanda district was lynched by a mob after the bodies of two schoolchildren were found in a nearby canal.
Similarly, a lorry driver was thrown into raging flames moments after his rash driving had claimed the life of a six-year-old boy, a nursery student, close to the state capital Patna. The incident had taken place in August 2011.
Earlier, four youths from nomad community were lynched by villagers in central Bihar’s Bhojpur district after allegedly being caught stealing bulls from the house of a villager, while an alleged gold chain snatcher Mohammad Aurangzeb was badly beaten up, tied to a police jeep and then dragged for a few km in eastern Bihar’s Bhagalpur district.
