A 22-year-old man was beaten to death by his neighbours at Polenite in Mahish Bathan on the fringes of Salt Lake on suspicion that he had stolen a cellphone.

Prasen Mondal was declared dead at a private hospital in Salt Lake on Saturday.

This is the second such lynching in the city in two consecutive days.

On Friday, Irshad Alam, 37, who worked as a TV mechanic in the Chandni Chowk area was allegedly dragged into a students’ hostel in central Calcutta on suspicion of stealing a phone and beaten to death.

Fourteen residents of Udayan Hostel on Nirmal Chunder Street in central Calcutta were produced at the Bankshall court on Saturday. They were sent to police custody till July 4.

Public prosecutor Arup Chakrabarty said among the 14 two were former students and the rest were from various universities. The attackers allegedly did not allow the police team that went there to enter the hostel for at least two hours.

After Irshad was rescued and rushed to hospital, he was declared dead.

On Saturday, the cops arrested three men who are Mondal’s neighbours on murder charges. They have been identified as Tapan Sarkar, his son Harshit and Sridam Mondal, another neighbour.

According to an officer of the Bidhannagar Commissionerate, the men had called Mondal out of his home.

“They accused him of being a mobile thief. Mondal said he did not steal anything. However, the argument soon snowballed into a fight.”

The three men dragged Mondal to an area overgrown with bushes and kept hitting him till he passed out, he said.

Several residents who were alerted by Mondal’s cries managed to stop the men
from hitting him. They convinced Tapan to take him to the hospital.

“We detained Tapan at the hospital after he could not give any logical reply about Mondal’s injuries,” another officer of the Bidhannagar Commissionerate said.