Chatra/Bokaro (Jharkhand), February 17 A mentally-challenged man was beaten to death, while six women from Uttar Pradesh were attacked by groups of people in two separate incidents in Chatra and Bokaro districts of Jharkhand, police said on Tuesday.
The 45-year-old man, who was allegedly severely beaten up by some people in Chatra district on suspicion of being a child-lifter, succumbed to his injuries at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi on Monday, a police officer said.
The incident took place on Sunday night in the Piparwar police station area, where residents of Chiraiyatand and Kichto villages brutally attacked the victim.
The man has been identified as Rambali Rajwar, a resident of Barwatoli in Ramgarh police station area of Ramgarh district, they said.
Piparwar police station officer-in-charge Abhay Kumar said, "The victim died during treatment at RIMS in Ranchi on Monday. This is a clear case of mob lynching, and the police have initiated a thorough investigation into the matter. The police have intensified efforts to identify those involved in the assault."
An FIR will be lodged in this regard, and the situation will become clearer once the victim's autopsy report is received. So far, no arrests have been made in this case, the officer said.
The victim had gone to the area on Sunday night, after which a group of people attacked him brutally. As soon as the incident was reported, a team from Piparwar police station rescued him and took him to Bachra Regional Hospital, from where he was shifted to RIMS for better treatment, he added.
Bhuvneshwar Rajwar, the brother of the victim, said his family hails from Barwatoli village in Ramgarh district but currently lives in McCluskieganj in Ranchi district.
He said that his deceased brother was mentally ill, and the family had been keeping him at home.
A day before the incident, he left the house without informing anyone and went to Chiriyatand, where people mistook him for a child-lifter and severely beat him up.
In another incident, six women from Uttar Pradesh were allegedly assaulted by a group of people in Jharkhand's Bokaro district on Monday.
The incident took place near a bridge on the Damodar River in Gandhi Nagar police station area, when locals spotted a group of women and suspected them of being child-lifters, leading to an assault on them, a police officer said.
"The women had come from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh for medical treatment. Some locals mistakenly assumed them to be child-lifters, resulting in assault and mistreatment," Gandhi Nagar police station in-charge Dhananjay Kumar Singh told