Mob lynching: Decomposed body of missing Tripura boy recovered

Agartala: Police have recovered the decomposed body of a 16-year-old boy two weeks after he had gone missing at North Maharanipur village of Khowai when three youths accompanying him were lynched to death on suspicion as cattle lifter in a pre-dawn attack.
Superintendent of Police (Khowai) Dr Kiran Kumar said the body was identified as Selim Miah (16), son of Abdul Quader, a resident of Bardowal village of Sonamura in West Tripura. The body was found buried in the deep forest of Subharampara of North Maharanipur after killing him.
He said police had arrested three villagers – Ripon Debbarma, Ranjit Debbarma and Deendayal Kumar Debbarma– in a week on the charges of involvement in mob lynching of three youths identified as Zaid Hossain (30), Billal Mia (28) and Saiful Islam (18), residents of bordering villages of Sonamura in Sepahijala district while they were traveling with five cows in a mini truck and Selim was accompanying them.
The accused persons confessed that the villagers attacked the victims when they saw them traveling with cows in the early morning suspecting them of cattle lifters. During the attack, Selim managed to flee from the spot. Later his body was found in the jungle. The villagers have allegedly buried his body.
“Based on their statements, we conducted a search in the forest on Saturday and dug out the body of Selim. Since it was a case of mob lynching, identification of culprits are little difficult but we are expected to arrest more soon to conclude the investigation,” the SP said.
An investigating police officers said a sizable number of villagers might be involved in the lynching, as they have been doing night surveillance in the area following sudden increase of cattle lifting. When villagers had seen the unknown people moving in a vehicle with cows in the village at high speed early in the morning, they tried to stop it but failed.
Meantime, they raised an alarm around the village and later when they caught the vehicle with cows, the mob became unruly and thrashed three of them badly. Soon after getting the information police reached the spot within half an hour and rescued them in critical condition and shifted them to hospital, police officer said.
“Once we reached the spot the villagers ran away and it was difficult for us to identify anybody. However, during investigation three persons were arrested who have confessed their involvement in the crime,” he pointed out adding during interrogation, police came to know that Selim had been killed and his body had been buried.