In yet another incident of lynching bid following rumours of child-lifting gangs operating in the area, villagers tried to lynch two youths at Tamar in Ranchi who were going to meet an acquaintance in the village after performing puja in Deori temple on Thursday evening.
Ranchi SSP Kuldeep Dwivedi, Rural SP R K lakra and other senior officials of the district administration rushed to the spot and held public meetings in the area to take people in confidence for stopping such incidents in future.
Only a few days back, four persons were lynched at Raj Nagar in Seraikela-Kharsawan district while three others got killed at Nagadih under Bagbera Police Station in Jamshedpur following rumours of child-lifting gangs operating in certain parts of the State surfaced on WhatsApp groups.
“The two persons, Pawan Kumar Pandey and Kundan Singh, claimed to be friends, were going to meet someone in lohri Teempur village of Tamar, but lost their way and thrashed badly by the villagers after being surrounded by them,” said Bundu DSP KV Raman. The incident apparently took place after a woman sleeping in house in the same village on Wednesday night perhaps dreamt that someone had barged in her house to kidnap her child, said the DSP.
The police said that had the police not reached there on time, the villagers would have thrashed them to death. “The two victims, however, are out of danger now and were referred to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences in Ranchi for better cure after providing primary treatment to them in a local hospital in Bundu,” said the DSP.
The victims, both residents of Jamshedpur, thanked police for saving their lives as the villagers would have killed them if the police had not reached there on time.
“After performing Puja at Deori Mandir at around 6 pm, we were going to meet an acquaintance in the village but lost our way as the roads in the area are being repaired. While taking turn at a sharp turn, I dashed my Maruti 800 car to something from the side, but as soon I came out of my car to see the damages done to it, more than 50 villagers surrounded us and started beating both of us without saying a single word to us who were later joined by 150 people more,” said Pandey who is a mechanical engineer by profession and works in Agriculture sector on project basis. All of them were equipped with traditional weapons, he said.
“They even took away our mobile phones and purse. They intended to kill both of us but police came on time and saved our lives,” he said. Had the police not come on time, the villagers would have succeeded in their intentions, he said.
“When we said that I have a friend in the village, they called him but despite his affirmation, the mob was not ready to spare us,” he said.
One of the policemen who reached on the spot after getting information about the incident said that they had to call extra force to take the victims out of their clutch as the villagers were not allowing the police team on patrolling team to do so.