Calcutta, July 21: A sexagenarian who had been attacked by alleged drug addicts in Darjeeling on July 15 succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Sikkim today.

The attack on Norden Lepcha, 69, a resident of C.R. Das Road near Chowrastha, along with a number of other incidents, had triggered charges that "anti-socials" were taking advantage of the current unrest to take law into their own hands.

Today, Binay Tamang, the assistant general secretary of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, didn't discount the theory. "We are getting reports that anti-socials are taking advantage of the current situation in the hills. Police must rein in them. We also request Morcha supporters and the people at large to be vigilant. We also have reports that a few picketers are harassing people."

Lepcha was hit on the head with an iron rod around 10pm on July 15 while he was returning home after collecting a bag of vegetables that his son had sent from Siliguri.

After the attack on Lepcha, The Telegraph had reported on the growing trend of lawlessness in the hills.

There are reports that groups of people, armed with khukuris, are demanding money from some shopkeepers. Miscreants also broke into a monastery near Dali on Wednesday night and decamped with the donation box.

Aniket Chhetri, a resident of Teesta Valley, had suffered burns after suspected Morcha supporters had set ablaze a truck near Kalijhora on June 19. He was taken to North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri from where he was referred to SSKM Hospital in Calcutta. On June 29, Chhetri breathed his last.