A suspected thief was stripped naked and beaten to death on late Saturday.
“A policeman was also severely injured in the incident. The angry mob was not prepared to listen to those who wanted the victim to be handed over to the police for proper investigation. Barely a few minutes after stripping him, the mob descended on him and killed him,” Town police station ASI Taranisen Naik said.
At the sleepy locality of Jenakhalpada , the residents of the area were yet to come to term with what occurred to them that they horrifically murdered the man on suspicion of being a “child thief”. Victim Santosh Kumar (32) claimed that he was not stealing the boy he was talking to.
Police rushed to the scene to take the deceased, who was living with his brother-in-law in Tetalgachpada. “We have sent the deceased’s body for postmortem and no one has been arrested till now,” Town PS IIC SN Satapathy said. Police has detained an unidentified woman. She is suspected to be a child thief, the IIC added. There is deep fear in Bhawanipatna that children are being stolen for sale or for transplant of their organs, although this is often based on rumour and unfounded stories.