Two suspected ‘cattle thieves’ lynched in Assam’s Nagaon

Guwahati, April 30

In a first case of cow vigilantes going to the extremes in Assam, a mob on Sunday lynched two men in Nagaon district suspecting them to be cattle thieves.

Senior police officials said the men, aged between 20 and 25, were severely beaten up by the mob, who alleged that they were involved in cow theft.

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“When the police reached the spot, they were being thrashed by a mob of villagers near Kasamari grazing reserve under Nagaon police station,” Nagaon superintendent of police Debaraj Upadhyay told PTI.

“The team immediately took the men to hospital, where they succumbed to their injuries,” he added.

The mob continuously thrashed them with sticks while chasing them for about 1.5 km, from Kasamari in Nagaon police station area to Jajori police station area, he said.

Upadhyay said the men were identified and their parents had registered a complaint with the police.

An FIR had been lodged and investigation is on, the SP said, adding that no arrest had been made so far.

Asked if it is a case of “cow vigilantism”, the senior official said a lot of cattle theft incidents had happened in Nagaon. “In this case, I got reports that some people saw the two men trying to take away cows from the field and called more people from the village. When a large crowd gathered, they started thrashing them badly,” he said.

The SP has assured of an “impartial inquiry” into the episode.

Though some incidents of cattle thieves being thrashed by mob have been reported from Assam earlier, this is the first casualty after cases of cow vigilantism have been reported in recent times across the nation. PTI