By Aishwayra S
Patna, Nov 14, 2019: A cattle trader was lynched for allegedly refusing to pay extortion money in a village near Katihar in Bihar, eastern India.
Mohammad Jamal was attacked on November 11 night as he was on his way to sell cows about 30 km from Katihar, some 390 km east of Patna, the state capital.
Jamal was taken to a government hospital where he was declared dead the same night.
The Quint confirmed that Jamal was with his uncle and cousin brother with cows to sell, when they were tracked and stopped by four men at Labha en route West Bengal. Sagar Yadav, a local goon, and three members of his family, asked them to pay money to use the road for cattle transport.
While Jamal’s cousin and uncle broke their grip and ran away, Jamal was brutally beaten up by the goons.
The following morning, Jamal’s angry family demanded the police to take action. An FIR was filed on their complaint.
Vikas Kumar, superintendent of police in Katihar, said that they could not arrest any of the accused until November 13 but the search was on. An FIR under section 302 (punishment for murder), 384 (extortion) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC has been registered at Roushna op police station,” he said.
The accused, he added, are influential people who demand money for allowing trade.
Jamal’s body was brought home on November 12 morning and a commotion began with more relatives pouring in. The crowd had to be dispelled by local administration officials.
The police official said the incident was neither lynching nor “anything else.”
Human rights lawyers said the police often do not understand mob lynching.
“First of all there is no section of mob lynching which is separate. So the police would primarily just be concerned about the media narrative of the case, which is why they keep saying it is not a mob lynching, which it is. It is a word activists, lawyers and journalists use in everyday parlance but not a term rooted in legality,” Aman Khan from Human Rights law Network said.
Source: thequint.com