NEW DELHI: A 27-year-old man who had been mercilessly beaten up by a mob 18 days ago died in Safdarjung Hospital on Saturday. Led by Yashwant Kumar, Rakesh Yadav and Phool Chand, the crowd had suspected Govind of being a child abductor and thrashed him, leaving him half dead in northwest Delhi’s Wazirpur Industrial Area on September 3.

The police had arrested Kumar (35), Yadav (22) and Chand (69) for the mob violence . A police officer said, “On Saturday morning we received information from Safdarjung Hospital that Govind had passed away. The postmortem of the man has been conducted. The three accused are in judicial custody and will now face charges of murder in addition to the charge of attempt to murder registered earlier.”

On September 3, the 27-year-old Govind, who worked in a factory on Lawrence Road, was having a conversation with his friend Suresh near the railway tracks in the area. When Suresh went to get some water from the JJ colony nearby, two persons brandishing knives approached Govind. Panicking, he started running and knocking on the doors for help.

Yashwant responded to his frantic knocking, but turned on Govind and abused him verbally. He then screamed “child lifter” and dragged the man out to the road. A crowd gathered and attacked Govind, tearing off his clothes and pummelling him until he fell unconscious. When he was taken to hospital, the doctors noted the numerous injuries on his body.

Govind later informed the cops that he did not know any of the persons who had assaulted him. He only realised during the attack that he was being beaten after being accused of abducting a child from Kumar’s house. Govind alleged that Kumar had battered him with a stick.

