Thief dies while attempting to flee villagers

The man hit an electrical pole in an effort to escape the villagers and died on the spot, police said, adding that the other three were thrashed by the locals.

The accused have been identified as - Harischand, Sanjeev, Ajit Singh and Kamlesh.

The incident occurred when two of them had entered the village at Farrukhnagar tehsil, around 25 kms from here, in the wee hours and were stopped by some villagers for identification.

The duo were held when they could not produce genuine documents, after which the remaining accused entered the village claiming that they had come to take the two into police custody.

However, all four were nabbed and beaten when they failed to show proper identification documents, police said.

Bogus identity cards of police, press, political parties and lawyers were recovered from their possession.

Three pistols, a dozen live bullets, a car, a motorcycle and some cash were also found with the accused.

Three of them were sent to the civil hospital for treatment and the body of the deceased has been sent for post mortem, police added.