Jharkhand witnessed on Wednesday the fourth instance of lynching after passing legislation against such mob violence in December last year, when two rape accused were burnt, out of which one succumbed to the injury in hospital at Gumla.

Jharkhand is awaiting nod for the legislation from the governor Ramesh Bais, who had in March this year returned the draft of the Prevention of Mob Violence and Mob Lynching Bill 2021 to the state government with suggestions.

According to sources in the Gumla police, two youths identified as Sunil Oraon (22) of Barhatoli village and Ashish Oraon (20) of Pokotoli village were taken by the relatives of a minor girl of Ambatoli village who had accused the two youths of raping her, to their village at around 10 pm on Wednesday night.

All the three villages come under Basawa panchayat and fall under jurisdiction of the same police station Gumla Sadar and are situated barely two kilometres away. The panchayat is 15km from the Gumla district headquarters.

After being thrashed, the youths were set on fire using the fuel from their bike. However, police arrived at the spot and dispersed the mob and rushed the youths to the Gumla Sadar Hospital and from there to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) Ranchi where one of the youths, Sunil Oraon, died of burn injuries.

Gumla superintendent of police Ehtesham Waquarib said: “Some villagers of Ambatoli had accused the two youths of gangraping their minor daughter. They had taken the two youths along with their bike to their village and after beating them, had tried to burn them. However, the police rescued the youths from them. One of the youths died.”