Thief lynched by mob

Angry residents of a locality in South 24-Parganas lynched a member of a gang of thieves, who had killed a resident while allegedly trying to steal livestock late on Tuesday. District police officers said the twin killings took place a little after 11 pm in Kumropara in the Raidighi police station area.

Raidighi Officer-in-Charge Ratan Chakraborty said the thieves had tried to steal goats from the farm of one Babulal Bhandari, who also runs a fishery and guards the farm himself. Upon spotting the miscreants, the 65-year-old raised an alarm for help. It was then that one of the thieves hit him on the head with a weapon, killing him.

8220;But the locals had already been alerted. The miscreants didn8217;t have enough time to escape and one of them was caught by the people who beat him to death. The rest managed to escape under the cover of darkness. As such, the gang has no criminal record but we have received reports in the recent past that they have been involved in several cases of theft and robbery,8221; Chakraborty said.

Police said they were working on some leads to apprehend the other members of the gang, although no arrests have been made as yet.