Even as the bill against mob lynching passed by the Jharkhand Assembly in December last year is awaiting the President’s consent, another youth was lynched on Tuesday evening at a village in Jharkhand bordering Chhattisgarh.

Ejaz Khan (29), a native of Tigra village in Gobindpur panchayat under Jari police station of Gumla, was lynched by irate villagers of Neemgaon and Patratoli in Jashpur district of Chhattisgarh over suspicion of goat theft. Jashpur shares a border with Jharkhand.

Jashpur senior superintendent of police (SSP) D. Ravishankar said a case had been registered against Ezaz Khan and others at Kotwali police station in Jashpur district in Chhattisgarh.“We have come to know that villagers found Ezaz and his accomplice stealing a goat and escaping on a bike. They started giving a chase and during the chase, there was a scuffle between the villagers and Ezaz.

There is a river (Sankh) which separates Jashpur and Gumla and Ezaz left his bike on the river bank at Jashpur and he along with his accomplice managed to swim across the river and cross over to Gumla. They were chased by villagers from Chhattisgarh too. We have come to know from Gumla police that the villagers had beaten Ezaz to death while the other youth had managed to escape. Ezaz was involved in cattle smuggling from Chhattisgarh and had criminal cases lodged against him both in Chhattisgarh and Gumla,” said Ravishankar.

The Jashpur SSP however said that they were cooperating with Jharkhand police in their investigation of the case.Gumla SP Ehtesham Waquarib confirmed the incident.

“The youth has a criminal antecedent. We have come to know from Jashpur police that there was a fight between villagers and the deceased at Jashpur itself over goat theft. The villagers had chased the youth and the body was recovered at Tigra village. The body has been sent for post-mortem. FIR has been lodged on the basis of a complaint by relatives of the deceased youth at Jari police station on charges of assault and murder. We are investigating the case,” said Waquarib.

No arrests have been made so far. Jharkhand was the fourth state after Bengal, Manipur and Rajasthan to pass a bill against mob lynching in December 2021. The bill is awaiting the President’s consent.

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 and three women were lynched near Ranchi in September on suspicion of witchcraft practice.