A Dalit youth was beaten to death while his friend is battling for life in a hospital after being attacked by a mob for alleged cattle theft in Bihar’s Saharsa district on Monday.

The incident took place at Amrita village under Sonbarsa Raj police station when Madhusudan Rishideo, a villager, raised an alarm after he found that his three buffaloes were missing in the early hours of Monday.

“The villagers formed small groups and fanned out in different directions to search for the thieves. One group saw two youths loitering outside the village and surrounded them. Soon other villagers also arrived there. Both of them were brought back to the village,” Sonbarsa Raj station house officer Sunil Kumar Bhagat told The Telegraph.

Bhagat said both the youths were tied to a bamboo pole and brutally assaulted with sticks and bricks.

“One of them died on the spot. The other was in a critical condition and breathing when we arrived there in the morning. He has been admitted to the government hospital in Saharsa,” he added.

The deceased is Rupesh Kumar Paswan, a resident of Karyat village under Patharghat police station area, around 2km from the village where he was lynched.

The injured youth, Jassi Kumar, is a native of Amrita village itself.

Police officers said both of them were friends and had no criminal records.

A few villagers said that the two friends used to roam around and had never been suspected of any theft earlier.

“It is shocking that the two youths were attacked without any evidence of their involvement in cattle theft.

No stolen item was recovered from them. Our investigations indicate that the buffaloes went missing at least a few hours before both of them were attacked,” Bhagat said.

Paswan’s body has been sent for post-mortem and the police are preparing to register an FIR in the incident.

“We will arrest the people involved in the attack,” the SHO said.

Bihar is witnessing an increasing number of incidents of mob lynching, especially of people belonging to the weaker sections of the society and the minority community.

A week ago, a Dalit youth was killed when he demanded the 10kg of rice promised to him for a day’s work of paddy sowing in Nalanda district.