Guwahati: In a shocking incident of mob lynching, a man allegedly died after being brutally beaten by a group of people in the Adagudam area at Guwahati on Wednesday morning.
The deceased person, identified as Sunil Sharma was beaten by a group of around 17-18 persons in the wee hours of the day. The group of people, all labourers, thrashed him to death on suspicion of being a thief.
Police sources said the victim was allegedly found illegally entering an undergoing construction site at the city’s Adagudam area near Lal Ganesh at around 3 AM.
“The group of labourers who were residing at the construction site suspected that he was a ‘mobile’ thief and started beating him with iron rods and wooden planks. Later locals found the victim in a pool of blood and alerted the police. Though rushed to the Gauhati medical college hospital, he was declared dead,” said police sources.
City police have begun the probe and detained some 17 of the workers. They were being quizzed now.
It is to be mentioned, that incident of mob lynching in Assam has been on the rise for the last few years.
Last year, the state’s cabinet minister Pijush Hazarika though had informed that the state government was planning to introduce a bill against mob lynching and violence in the state, but it was yet to see daylight.
The state government’s decision to bring a stringent law against mob lynching came after the horrific incident of lynching in which student leader Animesh Bhuyan was lynched in Jorhat by a mob in broad daylight on November 29, 2021.
In the infamous incident of Dokmoka in 2018, two youths from Guwahati- Nilotpal Das and Abhijit Nath- were lynched to death by a mob of villagers suspecting them as child lifters.
In 2018, the Supreme Court asked Parliament to make lynching a separate offence. Union home minister Amit Shah had informed Parliament that the government has decided to overhaul the IPC framed in 1860 and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and mob-lynching would also be examined by a committee.
The suggestions received by the Committee for Reforms in Criminal Laws would be examined by the Ministry before the changes are adopted.
There was “no separate” definition for lynching under the IPC, adding that lynching incidents could be dealt with under Sections 300 and 302 of the IPC, pertaining to murder.
