Two suspected thieves were bludgeoned to death on Friday night by residents of Saketpuri and Nutan colonies under Sultanganj police station. This is the fourth incident of lynching in Bihar in the last 10 days. The bodies of the victims were recovered from a pond. While one body was found on Friday night, the other body was found floating in the pond on Saturday morning, City SP Anwar Hussain said. The body recovered on Friday has been identified as that of Ajit Kumar (25), a Dalit, while the identity of the second victim is not known. About the criminal antecedents of Ajit, the City SP said: “We have heard about cases against him in Bakhtiarpur.”Local residents said an alarm was sounded on Friday at around 9.30 pm when four-five youths were spotted while trying to steal a motorcycle near Sultanganj Bazaar Samiti. Soon people came out from all directions and chased them as they fled towards Saketpuri and Nutan colonies where more people joined and finally nabbed two while others managed to flee. The two were assaulted with whatever crude weapons the mob could get hold of. “Kumar’s head was bashed with bricks,” said a resident. The bodies were reportedly thrown into a nearby pond. Sultangaj police station officer-in-charge Irshad Alam said one of the youth jumped into the pond to save his life and drowned. Alam said he reached the spot at night and recovered the body and had sent it for autopsy. But, locals said the police reached much after the youths were lynched though the police station was located a few kms away. Hussain said an FIR against unknown residents had been lodged and efforts were on to ascertain the identity of the second victim.
