Four nomads lynched in Bihar

Four members of a nomadic tribe were lynched Thursday evening in Bihar's Kaimur district on the suspicion that they were involved in a theft in the area, police said Friday. Three of the alleged assailants have been arrested. 

The four men were beaten to death at Kudra village in Kaimur district, about 200 km from the state capital, for their alleged involvement in a theft at a liquor shop in the area.

The victims -- identified as Shankar, 30, Lakhan, 26, Majanu, 25 and Soojan, 27 -- were banjaras, a sub-group of the Nat nomadic tribe. Originally hailing from Bharatpur in Rajasthan, they were living along with their families in Kaimur for over a decade and trying to earn a livelihood.

Police have lodged a case and arrested three of the accused, Additional Director General of Police (headquarters) Neelmani said Friday.

Family members of the four victims told police they had gone to the village pond but some people attacked them and others beat them with bamboo sticks and iron rods, killing them.

Some two years ago, a mob lynched 10 men of the Kueri sub-group of the Nat tribe at Rajapakar village in the state's Vaishali district. The incident had hit national headlines.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had ordered a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) probe into the incident, which found that the victims were not thieves and the lynching was not a sequel to any crime or theft case.

According to the report, the men were returning from a feast and got involved in a heated exchange with an auto-rickshaw driver over the fare near Dhelpurwa. The spat attracted a mob, which beat up the men mercilessly.

In rural areas of Bihar, street 'justice' is becoming increasingly common. Over 50 cases of lynching have been reported from the state over the last two-and-half months this year.