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Updated: Apr 30, 2019 07:00 IST

The Uttar Pradesh Police has booked a man under the National Security Act (NSA) for lynching a differently abled person in Etah last month, an officer said Sunday. A person can be imprisoned for up to a year without being charged under NSA.

Raj Kumar, 40, was booked under the NSA after a purported video of the lynching surfaced on social media a week after the incident. Subsequently, he was identified and arrested. “The intimation of proceedings under section 3(2) of the NSA, 1980, was served on Raj Kumar on Sunday as he is in the district jail,” said Etah’s SSP Swapnil Mamgain.

Jaspal Pawar, Etah’s Jalesar police station incharge, said the incident took place in Nagla Aheer on March 17. “There were repeated cattle thefts and villagers were looking for the culprit. Unfortunately, Ravindra Singh, 33, who is mentally unstable was mistaken for a thief and was brutally beaten after being tied to a tree. Police intervened and took him to hospital but he died on the way.

His father, Om Prakash, filed a complaint. “A search was launched to nab the accused and a case was filed,” said Pawar. The incident created a sense of insecurity among villagers. Corrective steps were taken, police said.