A 32-year-old daily wage labourer succumbed to his injuries on Saturday a day after a mob allegedly thrashed him after suspecting him of being a child lifter at Koderma in Jharkhand, his family said even as the state police said that their preliminary probe suggested that he was beaten up for alleged theft.
Koderma’s sub-divisional police officer, Rajendra Prasad, cited the investigation and said it suggested it was not a case of lynching over child lifting rumours as the family of the labourer, Sunil Yadav, has claimed.
“However, it is true that the victim [Sunil Yadav] was beaten up by residents of a [Koderma] locality after he was caught red-handed committing a theft,’’ he said. He added that police have filed a case on the complaint lodged by the labourer’s brother, Dilip Yadav. “Investigation has already commenced. We are waiting for the postmortem report,” said Prasad.
He promised strict action against those found involved in the incident as he tried to convince Sunil Yadav’s family to end their sit-in protest on the Ranchi-Patna highway near Koderma Sadar Hospital.
The protest was held for over an hour to press for the immediate arrest of those involved in allegedly assaulting Sunil Yadav. It ended following assurances from the police and local legislator Janki Yadav.
In his police complaint, Dilip Yadav said that his brother would travel to Koderma every day looking for work from Hazaribagh. He added that he was brutally thrashed and later thrown by the roadside.
Dilip Yadav said that his brother somehow managed to reach a private clinic for treatment and informed him about the incident over phone. He added that they then rushed to Koderma and shifted him to the Sadar Hospital there for better treatment. “But he died the next day on Saturday,” Dilip Yadav said.
Dilip Yadav said Sunil Yadav told him that his attackers locked him up in a room and assaulted him after calling him a child lifter. He named some of his attackers as he had heard the accused calling each other, Dilip Yadav said.
