A middle-aged man was beaten to death in Jharkhand after he had allegedly wangled money from a local by falsely claiming that the latter’s son was in trouble, in yet another instance of lynching in the state that passed a law against such crimes two years ago but is still awaiting its implementation.

Shamshad Ansari, 45, was beaten to death by locals at Sikni in Dulmi block, Ramgarh district, 67km from Jharkhand capital Ranchi, on Tuesday evening. The Ramgarh superintendent of police acknowledged that Ansari had been beaten to death but took exception to the incident being called a case of mob lynching.

Journalists from vernacular dailies who visited the spot said Ansari had approached Sikni resident Haradhan Mahato at his house, posing as his son’s colleague. Ansari allegedly told Haradhan that his son Ramkumar Mahato was in trouble and needed Rs 20,000. But soon after Ansari left with the money, Ramkumar, a school teacher, reached home and was told about the incident.

He, along with a few of his neighbours, started looking for Ansari and spotted him escaping on a bike near the railway crossing, the local journalists said. They gave chase, caught Ansari and hit him with sticks and also punched him. Later in the evening, the police reached the spot and took Ansari to Ramgarh Sadar Hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.

The police said the body was handed over to relatives on Wednesday afternoon after the post-mortem. A large number of cops has been deployed in Sikni to avoid law-and-order problems.

“There has been no law-and-order problem so far. We have taken preventive measures. So far five persons have been arrested. The others have been identified and will be arrested soon,” Pandey said.

“I would like to categorically state that it was not a case of mob lynching. The deceased was involved in petty offences like chain snatching in the past and had cases registered at different police stations against him. On Tuesday evening, he had gone to a person’s house in Sikni and tried to extract money through fraudulent means and was caught. Some locals gave him chase and beat him up. However, some other locals informed the police, who reached the spot and took the injured to the nearest hospital,” the officer added.

In December 2021, Jharkhand had become the fourth state after Bengal, Manipur and Rajasthan to pass a bill against mob lynching. But the then governor, Ramesh Bais, on March 2022 returned the anti-lynching bill to the state government with two specific suggestions, including reconsidering the definition of a “mob” which was “not in consonance with the well-defined legal lexicon or glossary”.