3 held for lynching of men carrying cows in Jalpaiguri

Three people were today arrested in connection with the lynching of two men for carrying cows in a pick-up van in Jalpaiguri district.
Superintendent of Police Amitabha Maiti said the police had detained eight people from Barohalia village, where the lynching occurred yesterday morning, for questioning.
Later, three of them were arrested and the rest released, he said, adding that the police were in the look-out for some more people involved in the lynching.
Meanwhile, a large number of people of Barohalia demonstrated before the Dhupguri police station demanding that the three arrested be released and claimed that the deceased were cattle thieves.

Rapid Action Force (RAF) and a huge contingent of police were deployed there.
One of the villagers said cattle were being stolen regularly from their village for quite sometime, but the police did not do anything. But after the two thieves died, they have become very active.

The villagers said they woke up from sleep at the sound of speeding vehicles early yesterday and intercepted a pick-up van full of cattle.
Those in the vehicle failed to answer what they were doing at that time in the village with a pick-up van full of cattle. This led to an altercation and two persons in the vehicle were beaten up.

Police said Anwar Hussain (19) and Hafizul Sheikh (19) were beaten to death by the mob, which also badly damaged the pick-up van.