Cracker protest leads to lynching

Guwahati: A daily wage labourer, 35, was lynched at a wedding venue in lower Assam's Nalbari district on Tuesday night.

Police sources said Jatin Das was beaten to death by people present at the wedding venue at No. 2 Ghoraphal village under Mukalmua police station following an altercation over bursting of firecrackers.

Six people, Krishna Talukdar, Bidyut Barman, Dipankar Talukdar, Achyut Talukdar, Barun Talukdar and Jiten Talukdar, have been arrested over the past 24 hours. They have been booked under Sections 302 (punishment for murder) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC.

The police said Das and the arrested persons hail from Ghoraphal.

"The incident took place around 11pm on Tuesday. The deceased was a neighbour of the family, at whose residence the marriage ceremony was under way. The revellers were bursting excessive number of firecrackers and Jatin requested them to stop it. An altercation took place after which the mob beat Das to death," Nalbari superintendent of police Shiladitya Chetia said.

This led to a deterioration in law and order in the village and its surrounding areas and protesters kept Das's body in front of the gate of the wedding venue.

"Large number of police and CRPF personnel have been deployed at the spot and the situation is under control. Our forces are still at the spot to keep the situation under control," Chetia added.

Mukalmua police station officer in-charge Khagen Chandra Nath said tension prevails in the village as Das's relatives also tried to attack the wedding family.

As a protective measure, the police took the bride and her parents to the police station and the wedding ceremony was not allowed to proceed.

Assam director-general of police Kuladhar Saikia said here that the situation in the village was under control and investigations were on.

This is the second incident of lynching in Assam in two months.

On June 8, two youths from Guwahati - Nilotpal Das, a 29-year-old sound engineer based in Goa, and his friend Abhijit Nath, 30, - were lynched in Karbi Anglong district by villagers on suspicion of being child-lifters.

Thieves thrashed

A mob bashed up two thieves at Parer Char under Abhayapuri police station in Assam's Bongaigaon district on Tuesday night. The thieves have been identified as Azgar Ali, 30, and Saheb Ali, 28, residents of Kasarpeti in Borghola area of the district.

A gang of three thieves had entered a mosque at Parer Char and attempted to steal money from the donation box placed inside the mosque. Some residents saw them and caught two of them while one managed to escape. Eventually, several people gathered at the site. The mob bashed up the thieves, tied them up and kept them in the locality before police rescued them.

The police took them to the hospital at Abhayapuri and later brought them to the police station. Both the accused will be produced before the court on Thursday, a police official said.

Additional reporting by Tejesh Tripathy in Bongaigaon