Three people were lynched on suspicion of cattle theft in Tripura’s Khowai district on Sunday morning.

Police said two of the deceased were beaten up by a mob at North Maharanipur while the third, who had escaped, was caught and assaulted at Sovaram Para, 3km away.

Neither transport nor slaughter of cattle is banned in Tripura, the police said, adding they have registered two cases of lynching against unidentified people.

Khowai superintendent of police Kiran Kumar told The Telegraph they had first received a call around 4.40am about an accident involving a truck.

The trio was allegedly fleeing the Namanjai Para area after stealing cows. The owner of the cows had alerted nearby villagers.

“Since people were waiting for them, they must have panicked and hit a roadside coconut tree. Our team found two persons lying near the truck, critically injured,” Kumar said.

The injured men were rushed to a nearby primary health centre, and then to the G.B. Pant Hospital in Agartala, about 45km from Khowai.

“Our team came to know there was a third person who had managed to escape. We informed our police stations. Our personnel rescued him at Sovaram Para but he too was badly injured. Two cases of murder have been registered in this connection,” Kumar said.

All were declared dead on arrival at G.B. Pant Hospital.

No arrests had been made till the filing of this report on Sunday evening.

The deceased — Saiful Islam, 18, Zayed Hussein, 28, and Billal Miah, 30, — hailed from Sonamura in Sipahijala district bordering Bangladesh.

Sipahijala is around 45km from Khowai.