Three men killed on suspicion of being thieves; 100 detained

Three persons were dragged out of their car and beaten to death by a group of villagers in Palghar district of Maharashtra on suspicion that they were thieves, police said on Friday.

An initial response team of the police could not save them as it was heavily outnumbered and the victims were beaten up even inside the police vehicle, a senior official said.

Inspector Anandrao Kale of the Kasa police station said the gruesome incident took place between 9.30-10 pm on Thursday.

The mob attack took place at a time when a nationwide lockdown is in force to curb the spread of coronavirus.

The identity of the victims was not yet established, he said, adding more than 100 people have been detained by the police.

The bodies of the three persons, who were traveling in a car from Mumbai, have been sent for post-mortem to the government hospital in Palghar, Kale said.

Their vehicle was stopped on the Dhabadi-Khanvel road near village Gadchinchale by local residents, he said.

They were pulled out of the car and attacked by villagers with stones and other objects on suspicion that they were thieves, he said.

Additional Superintendent of Police Vijay Sagar told PTI that an initial response team of the police (which typically has three or four personnel) reached the spot and tried to rescue the victims by putting them in the police vehicle.

But the mob attacked the victims even inside the police vehicle and the police personnel, who were heavily outnumbered, could not do anything, he said.

Rumours of a gang of bandits being roaming around the district were circulating in the area, Sagar added.

An offence under IPC section 302 (murder) along with other sections, including armed rioting and 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), has been registered, inspector Kale said.

IPC section 188 has been invoked in the case due to the coronavirus-enforced lockdown under which sweeping curbs have been imposed on movement and assembly of people, he said.