Mob ‘beats man to death' after his vehicle hits tea garden worker in Tripura's Unakoti
A man was allegedly beaten to death by an angry mob after his vehicle hit and injured a worker at a tea garden in Kailashahar of Tripura's Unakoti district on Tuesday. The deceased was identified as Pradeep Das, 30, a resident of the Ratiabari area under Kumarghat in the district.
Police, quoting locals, said three people were seen trying to take away some goats from the roadside in their vehicle, after which a few locals chased them. Some more people, armed with sticks, came in front of the vehicle to stop them. While trying to flee from the spot, the vehicle hit a tea garden worker and he fell into a concrete roadside drain.
Soon, the other person in the vehicle, identified as Nirmal Das, hid inside the tea garden. Before Pradeep could also hide, the angry mob allegedly beat him to death and set the vehicle on fire later.
'A murder case will be lodged. Another section will be incorporated for setting the vehicle on fire. One of the co-riders is with the Kailashahar police. The other co-rider escaped from the spot and is known to be safe. We have started our investigation,' said an official from the Kailashahar police station.
Nirmal Das, while speaking to reporters, said the occupants of the vehicle were friends. 'The vehicle was speeding and he (Pradeep ) hit two cows standing on the road and they (the irate mob) killed him because of that,' he said.
In February, five people were detained after a 35-year-old man, suspected to be a thief, was beaten to death by an irate mob at Belonia in South Tripura district.
In June 2021, three suspected cattle smugglers were lynched to death at two locations in Tripura's Khowai district.
In February of the same year, a 55-year-old lorry driver was beaten to death by unidentified people in Lalchari village of Dhalai district. In December 2020, a 21-year-old man suspected of theft was lynched by a mob near Govind Ballabh Panth Hospital in Agartala.
After a series of mob lynching incidents in 2018 over rumours of child kidnappers were reported, the state government introduced the Tripura Lynching/Violence/Mob Violence Compensation Scheme 2018. The cabinet has decided to implement the law, taking cue from a Supreme Court order in July 2018 where the court directed all state governments to frame a rule for implementing the scheme within one month.
According to mob violence compensation rules, the state government has to pay Rs 4 lakh to families of people who die in mob violence and Rs 2 lakh to those who were crippled with 80 per cent injuries, Rs 1 lakh in case of 40-80 per cent injuries, Rs 95,000 for those who sustained damage in their pucca houses or ships, Rs 50,000 for damage in kutcha houses or shops etc.
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