Mob lynch man on a killing spree,5 dead

Around 7.30 am on Monday,Ratan managed to escape and got hold of a sickle. He fled from his house and assaulted a beggar,Kalidas Bairagi (65),sleeping on the road. He allegedly grabbed his neck and slit his throat. A few villagers noticed Bairagi lying in a pool of blood and alerted the police.

In the meantime,Ratan,still enrgaed,attacked a 72-year-old woman pedestrian,Manju Biswas,and stabbed her repeatedly until she collapsed. Biswas was returning home from her relative’s home.

Ratan then moved to another place and noticed Dhiren Biswas (60),a farmer,with his granddaughter Nibedita (4) passing through a mango orchard. Armed with the sickle,the man first screamed at them and then started chasing them. Scared Dhiren ran carrying his granddaughter. Unfortunately,he lost control and they fell down.

Ratan then allegedly grabbed his collar and stabbed him repeatedly until he succumbed to his injuries. His granddaughter was yelling but before the locals could rescue her,Ratan slit her throat,Sen said. The news of the killing spree spread in the village and over 500 agitated locals,armed with iron rods and chopper,began to hunt for Ratan.

Meanwhile,Ratan saw a rickshawpuller and started chasing him. The scared rickshawpuller escaped into a local BSF camp located along the India-Bangladesh border and alerted the officers.

The BSF jawans soon overpowered Ratan and informed the Bongoan police about the incident. The irked villagers,meanwhile,rushed towards the BSF camp,snatched Ratan from their custody,and lynched him with iron rods and chopper.

Sen said: “Preliminary investigation reveals that Ratan,who used to be a rickshawpuller,had lost his mental balance of late. The situation in the village is under control and the bodies have been sent for postmortem. We have initiated two cases — one for murder and another for lynching.”

The locals alleged that despite repeated requests,Ratan’s father refused to send him to mental hospital.