Mob lynching continues to prevail in Jharkhand despite passing a bill against it. The bill is awaiting President’s consent for its enactment.

A 47-year-old resident of Bokaro, identified as Imran Ansari, was beaten to death by a group of people taking part in the Durga Puja immersion procession on Thursday night after allegedly finding him and a married woman of the same village in a compromising position near a school.

The murder took place at Dhwaiyan village under Mahuatand police station in Gomia block of Bokaro district, over 200km from Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi.

The injured Imran, who was a member of Dhwaiya Anjuman Committee, was hurriedly rushed by the local police to a private hospital in Ramgarh where the doctors seeing his critical condition referred him for treatment to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) Ranchi. However, the victim was declared dead at RIMS.

Jharkhand was the fourth state after Bengal, Manipur and Rajasthan to pass a bill against mob lynching in December 2021.

Since then a youth had been torched to death in Simdega by villagers in January for tree felling while a youth was lynched in Hazaribagh in February, a forest committee member was lynched in May for resisting tree felling, three women were lynched near Ranchi in September on suspicion of witchcraft practice and a youth was lynched in Gumla on allegation of stealing goats earlier this month.

Bokaro SP Chandan Kumar Jha said police have nabbed 11 out of the 21 named accused. “The relatives of the victim have lodged an FIR against 21 persons and we have managed to arrest 11 out of them. We are verifying the remaining named accused’s involvement in the case. Nobody involved in the incident would be spared,” Jha said.

The SP also informed that adequate police force has been deployed in the village and its nearby areas to prevent any untoward incident. “The situation is normal at the moment but we have deployed security personnel to prevent any untoward incident,” the SP said.

According to DSP Bermo, Satish Chandra Jha, the incensed villagers started thrashing Imran at the village itself.

“The villagers who were taking part in the Durga Puja immersion procession on being informed went to the place and found the victim and the woman in a compromising position near a school in the village and started beating up the victim. On getting information the local police rushed to the spot and rescued the victim from the mob and sent him for treatment to a private clinic nearby in Ramgarh from where he was referred to RIMS Ranchi where he was declared brought dead,” said the police official.

The victim’s wife is a ward councillor.