NEW DELHI: The Facebook profile photo of Abhijit Nath , one of the two men lynched by a mob in Assam on Friday night, has little semblance to the lanky and shy boy that I had known some 14 years ago while I was a student at the Little Flower School in Guwahati. We were in the same batch of class X, in 2004.

As news about his death surfaced and the disturbing video of their assault circulated widely on social media, Abhijit’s friends were left wondering just why the frenzied mob suspected him to be a child abductor when he wouldn’t “even hurt a fly”.

Abhijit, 30, along with his musician friend Nilotpal Das, 29, had left home on Friday morning in search of some ornamental fishes in Karbi Anglong’s scenic Kangthilangso waterfall. But the two were brutally hacked with machetes and thrashed using bamboo sticks by a mob of more than 200 near the remote Panjuri Kachari village in the district.

“He had called up his girlfriend (who did not wish to be named) around 6pm on Friday and promised to return home soon. But around half an hour later, his phone was unreachable,” said his sister, Namrata Saharia Das, also my classmate from school.

Around 8pm, the frantic calls of his girlfriend were answered by one of his alleged attackers: “We’ve killed him. You can see it in the newspapers tomorrow.” She received another call. This time from the Karbi Anglong police, informing her that he is dead. His brutalised body was brought to his Guwahati residence late in the night.

“Abhijit wouldn’t talk much but was gentle. He was a foodie and passionate about animals. How could he have been a child abductor,” asked Namrata.

I got the news of his death through a Facebook post Namrata had put up. In shock and disbelief, neither of us knew how to talk about his death, two days after news of the assault arrived. The barbaric incident has jolted the state, with cries for justice pouring in from thousands across social media.

Abhijit’s parents, Ajit and Shashiprava Nath, are inconsolable at the loss of their only child. “He used to live like the king of the house. There was one room full of aquariums for him. My brother had plans of getting married soon.

It broke us to see his battered body. Those culprits had knifed his face so badly it was hard for us to even recognise him,” Namrata said, tears rolling down her eyes.

