Assam lynching: State police files chargesheet against 48 people accused of killing two youths over child-lifting rumors

Guwahati: The Assam Police on Saturday filed a 844-page chargesheet against 48 people in the sensational mob lynching case of two youths in Karbi Anglong district in June this year.

“It is a major achievement by the Assam Police that we could file the charge sheet within 90 days. It is filed against 48 persons accused of lynching two youths at Dokmoka in Karbi Anglong on 8 June,” Assam Director General of Police (DGP) Kuladhar Saikia said at a press conference.

On 8 June, two friends — Nilotpal Das and Abhijeet Nath — had gone to a picnic spot of Kangthilangso waterfalls under Dokmoka police station in Karbi Anglong. While returning, their car was stopped at Panjuri Kachari by a group of irate villagers, who pulled them out and beat them up for hours before killing them, on rumours of being child-lifters.

The chargesheet, which contained 844 pages of charges against the accused along with 104-page case diary, was submitted in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate at Diphu, the district headquarter of Karbi Anglong.

“When a movement against mob lynching is going on everywhere, it is an important development for the entire country. We could attach the details of everyone’s crime and all the accused were arrested. The chargesheet also has as many as 71 witnesses,” Saikia said.

This could well be one of the rare mob lynching cases where the chargesheet has been filed against such a large number of persons. “The charges have been framed under Sections 302, 341, 142, 427, 143/144(I), 147 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC),” the police official added.