Jharkhand man lynched after being accused of cow slaughter

Bhubaneshwar, September 23

A man was mob-lynched in Jharkhand after he was accused of cow slaughter, police said on Monday.

ML Meena, a senior police official in eastern Jharkhand state, said a crowd of 10-15 people attacked three men on Sunday, accusing them of butchering a cow in a forest about 50 km (30 miles) from the state capital Ranchi.

The villagers beat them "severely", Meena said. One of trio died and the others sustained injuries. One of the men is still undergoing treatment in hospital, while the remaining victim suffered minor injuries.

Police have detained eight people in connection with the lynching in the rural Khunti district, he added.

"Police are investigating the matter. We are addressing this murder case," Meena said.

Cows are sacred in Hinduism, and there have been frequent attacks on those accused of killing them for meat or leather, predominantly people from the minority Muslim population or those on the lower rungs of India's ancient caste system.

The three men attacked by the mob on Sunday were not Muslim, Meena said. 

In a different incident in Rajasthan, a 24-year-old Muslim man was beaten up by a mob in Alwar—a place that saw two other cases of mob lynching making national headlines—over suspicions of cow smuggling.  Agencies