Even as the case of custodial death of a BSF personnel in Kwant still simmers,another incident of lynching occurred in the district on Wednesday. People of Kadwal village,which is located 13 kilometres from Pavi Jetpur,stoned three suspected thieves from the denotified tribal community to death outside a police outpost. Later,when the police reached the spot,the irate mob resorted to violence,which forced the police to fire in the air and also lob tear gas shells to control the situation. According to the Pavi Jetpur police,villagers patrolling the borders of Kadwal and a neighbouring village,Jhadi,found four persons loitering in the village in a suspicious manner in the wee hours of Wednesday. They caught three of them,while one managed to escape. The villagers then tied the men up outside the Kadwal police outpost and started pelting stones at them, said Sub-Inspector L J Vaghela. According to Raman Rathwa of the village taluka panchayat,the situation went out of control when the police failed to turn up despite several calls made to them. Police reached the spot three hours after the incident. The villagers thought that like other thieves who are caught and then freed,these men too will be freed,so they refused to hand them over, added Rathwa. Eyewitnesses said nearly 500 people from seven villages around Kadwal had assembled in the area,disallowing the police to take custody of the suspects. While two of the men were already unconscious,the third was calling for medical help. The villagers did not listen to us,forcing us to fire one round in the air and lob four tear gas shells to disperse the mob, said Vaghela. The mob grew in size as the day progressed. When we managed to get their custody,these villagers followed us to the police station and demanded that the one who was still conscious should be handed over to them. Around 5,000 tribals surrounded the police station till 6 pm on Wednesday, added the police officer. While two of the three suspects were found dead,the third died while being taken to a local hospital. The deceased have been identified as Gajra Moti Salat,Dilip Shankar Salat and Jaggu Bhimji Matapujak. Police said these men worked in Chhota Udepur as labourers,but belonged to Itwada village located two kilometres from Pavi Jetpur. It may be mentioned here that villagers in the taluka have formed their own vigilance teams with a rise in incidents of loot and theft in the area and near absence of policing. According to Rathwa,five-member patrolling teams have been operating across 112 villages in the taluka. Earlier,there were only thefts in the area,but recently,several loots have occurred. The police have failed to give protection, he added. The police,however,see it differently. They say the recent incidents of loot are not the handiwork of any fixed gang. It is due to abject poverty in the neighbouring Kwant taluka and other backward areas of the state that most of these thieves gang up during festivals and marriages,and strike. Then they go back to their respective jobs, said Vadodara SP B S Jebaliya.
