Goa stone crusher’s son lynched over pollution

Angered by pollution caused by several stone-crushing units, a furious mob killed the son of the owner of 13 such units at Honda in Sattari taluka of Goa today. Prithviraj Rane (32), son of landlord and powerful political leader Krishnarao Rane, was killed when he visited the stone-crushing units, which had been closed down by the villagers on Monday midnight.

A mob went on a rampage at the site. When Prithviraj ran and took shelter in a nearby house, the mob pulled him out and he died when he was hit on his head with an iron rod.

The crowd attacked a police squad deployed at the site. Thirty-six police personnel were injured.

Sources said this was a fallout of the yesterday’s incident when Rane’s supporters attacked a shop owned by a villager to retaliate against the closure of the crushing units. They alleged their complaints about pollution caused by the crushing units were ignored as Rane was a powerful local political figure.