india

Updated: Sep 23, 2019 13:14 IST

A 38-year-old man died and two others were seriously injured on Sunday in Khunti district of Jharkhand after a mob assaulted the three tribals over allegation of cow slaughter, police said on Monday.

The three men were attacked in Suari Jaltanda village under Karra police station, around 45km from state capital Ranchi, on Sunday after information that a cow was allegedly being slaughtered.

The dead man was identified as Kalantus Barla, a resident of Gopalpur village under Lapung police station. Fagu Kachchap and Philip Horo were the two men who were injured in the assault.

“People of more than half a dozen villages gathered there and started thrashing them. A villager informed the police about the incident,” said Khunti’s sub-divisional officer (SDO), Pranav Paul.

“A police team immediately rushed to the spot and rescued all the three and sent them to hospital. However, one died during treatment,” Paul said.

Kachchap was admitted to Ranchi’s Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (RIMS) and Horo was being treated at Khunti’s community health centre (CHC).

Khunti Police have detained eight people in this connection. Police said four different teams were set up and a search operation was being carried out to nab the others involved in the crime.

Villagers, including more than 50 women, surrounded the Karra police station on Sunday to protest the detentions and demanded their release. The villagers claimed that all the eight people detained in the case were innocent.

Even as the police tried to convince the villagers to leave the police station, they staged a sit-in protest until 10pm on Sunday. Police said the villagers left the police station by midnight.

A tribal Christian man was similarly lynched to death and three others were injured after they were beaten by a mob in the state’s Gumla district on April 10, 2019.

Prakash Lakra (50), Peter Kerketta (50), Belarius Tirkey (60) and Janerius Minj (35) of Jurmu village were thrashed after they were found cutting the flesh off a dead ox, the police said. Lakra died and the others were injured.