13 Held For Lynching Man, Attacking 5 Others In Chhattisgarh Village

Dhamtari: Thirteen persons, including three women, were arrested for allegedly lynching a 19-year-old man and attacking his five companions, on the charge of stealing paddy from a villager's house in Chhattisgarh's Dhamtari district, police said on Wednesday.

The incident occurred on Sunday night in Sirsida village located in Kurud police station limits, an official said.

The deceased was identified as Kartik Patel (19), while the five injured are Omkar Sahu, Sanjay Sahu, Devendra Sahu, Dhaneshwar Nishad and one more person, hailed from Sirsida village under Kurud police station limits, an official said.

"On the night of December 22, some residents of Sirsida village caught Omkar Sahu while he was stealing two sacks of paddy from the house of one Bhikham Sahu. When the locals caught and questioned him, Omkar told them that Kartik Patel and other youths were also part of the plan. Thereafter, the villagers, armed with sticks, reached their residences and started beating them by dragging them out," he said.

The villagers kept beating all of them till the next morning, he said.

"Patel was severely injured in the attack. The villagers involved in assaulting them warned the victims and their family members not to approach the police to lodge a complaint against them," the official said.

They handed over Patel to his family members, who rushed him to the district hospital. But doctors there declared him dead, he added.

Patel's family members later lodged a complaint, based on which a case was registered on Monday night under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 103 (1) (murder), 296 (B) (uttering obscene words in public place), 115 (2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 351(2) (criminal intimidation) and 191(1) (rioting), he said.

"Thirteen persons, including three women, were arrested in this connection on Tuesday. They were produced in a court, which sent them to judicial custody," he said.