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Suspected of stealing rice, Dalit man tied to tree and beaten to death in Chhattisgarh

Three arrested, booked for murder. According to the prime suspect, the victim had sneaked into his house at night to ‘steal’ a sack of rice

Police sources claim he was beaten with bamboo sticks, kicked and punched (Representative image)

A tribal man was among three people arrested for allegedly beating a Dalit man to death on suspicion of stealing rice in Chhattisgarh’s Raigarh district early Sunday. While activists claim this is a case of mob lynching, police said it does not fall under the definition of the offence under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

The incident took place around 2 am in Dumarpalli village. According to his statement to the police, the main suspect in the case, Virendra Sidar, 50, said he was awoken by some noise and saw the victim, Panchram Sarthi alias Butu, 50, sneaking into his home and trying to steal a sack of rice. Enraged, he called his neighbours, Ajay Pradhan, 42, and Ashok Pradhan,44, and together, the three of them tied Sarthi to a tree.

According to police sources, the village sarpanch alerted the police in the morning, and when a team got there at 6 am, they found Sarthi unconscious and still tied to a tree. Police sources claim he was beaten with bamboo sticks, kicked and punched.

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The three arrested have been booked for murder under section 103 (1) of BNS. Police are now investigating the involvement of more people in the case.

Meanwhile, the case has now courted controversy, with activists calling for the provision for mob lynching to be invoked in the case. The provision, Section 103 (2) of the BNS, defines mob-lynching as, “when a group of five or more persons acting in concert commits murder on the ground of race, caste or community, sex, place of birth, language, personal belief or any other similar ground each member of such group shall be punished with death or with imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine”.

“It does not matter what was the reason behind attacking him. Can they take law in their hands? It’s a case of mob lynching,” lawyer and social activist Degree Prasad Chouhan told The Indian Express.

But when contacted, a senior police officer said the case doesn’t “fulfil the criteria mentioned in section 103 (2) of BNS”.

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