Villagers attack four "gangsters"; two dead

While Jitender Singh, nephew of Advocate General, Haryana, Hawa Singh Hooda, Raj Yadav and Dinesh are residents of New Delhi, Sukh Ram lived in Mahendergarh. The police said, the four had left Gurgaon last evening and were on their way to Mahendergarh when their Maruti car broke down at Pachgawan village. They hired a Tata Sumo from the village and proceeded to Baldhaua village in Mahendergarh.

Some local villagers, however became suspicious on seeing a hockey stick and arod lying in the Maruti car. The word spread in the area that these four persons were probably gangsters who had attacked various farmhouses in the last couple of weeks, the police said. According to the police, when the four, Jitender, Dinesh, Raj Yadav and Sukhram, returned to Pachgawan in the morning, the villagers took them to the nearby fields and offered them tea.

After some time, a woman, who was attacked at one of the farmhouses, was called to identify them. The woman identified three of them as the assaulters. The allegation was enough to provoke the already suspicious villagers and they began thrashing the four of them.

Hooda said, "They kicked me everywhere. One of them was jumping on my leg while the other was hitting me on the head."

The mob then took them to the national highway and blocked the traffic for about three hours in an apparent show of strength. However, the victims relatives have alleged that the villagers continued to beat the four even in the presence of the police. Aninquiry has been ordered to look into the allegation by the district magistrate, Gurgaon, Devender Singh.