Mob in Bihar stones 10 to death for petty theft

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Vaishali (Bihar): Ten alleged thieves were lynched by villagers in the Vaishali District of Bihar on Wednesday.

The band of thieves was spotted by a villager who raised an alarm. Within minutes, nearly 200 villagers collected and lynched the men.

Police were called, but reached the spot too late to save the men. Out of the 11 people held by the villagers, 10 were killed on the spot and one injured. He has been admitted to Hajipur hospital.

Theft incidents have been on the rise in the area with eight being reported in the last three months. People had asked for police deployment, but no action was taken.

There have been concerns in the past that the police had not been taking the complaints of robbery by villagers seriously enough. Authorities now say that this could be one of the reasons why the villagers decided to take matters into their own hands and deliver street justice.

ADG Law & Order Bihar, Abhyananad, confirming this, told CNN-IBN, "Theft incidents have been reported in the past from this area, but we have complaints that no action was ever taken by the local police."

He said that the Superintendent of Police, Vaishali, Anupama Nirlekar had reached the spot and was ascertaining the situation.

"Jewellery and cash have been recovered from the dead people, but no arrests have been made so far," Nirlekar told CNN-IBN.

IG Patna, Krishna Chaudhary said that a case has been registered against both sides.

"We have recorded the statement of the injured. However, it will be wrong to say that regular thefts were taking place and that was the immediate provocation of killing 10 people. Only two thefts have been reported in the last four months," he added.

Meanwhile, Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar assured all that action would be taken against those involved in the lynching. He also said that an awareness campaign would be started against mob fury.

"We will take necessary steps to create awareness. A mass campaign will be carried out against this," he said.

And leader of the Opposition and Union Railways Minister, Lalu Prasad did not leave the opportunity to speak out against the CM.

"There is no law and order in the state. It's complete anarchy. What happened to the Nitish government's promise of good governance?" he said.

This is not the first time that an incident of mob fury has taken place in Bihar.

An angry mob in Nawada district of Bihar blinded three youths on Monday after they tried to steal a motorcycle. All three, who have been admitted to hospital in Nawada, have criminal records.

The police have registered a case, but the accused are yet to be identified.

And that's not all. Bhagalpur too was in the news recently after a thief was beaten up by the police and people and was dragged on the road by a policeman for a few hundred meters after being tied to a motorcycle.

The incident had triggered a public outcry following which the errant policemen were placed under suspension.

The Bhagalpur blindings too, in the 1980s, had made headlines and more recently, Prakash Jha had made a movie called Gangajal on the events that unfolded in those times.

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