AJSU district head, driver lynched after altercation with villagers turns ugly

Two persons, including the AJSU party's Deogarh district president Mukesh Kumar Singh, were on Tuesday lynched by a group of villagers in Deogarh district's Rohini village after an altercation broke out between them, the police said in Ranchi.

Singh was going to the pilgrim town of Deoghar when the villagers stopped their car in the wee hours, sub-divisional police officer Animesh Nathani said. After an alleged altercation, Singh and his driver were lynched, he said.

Singh was also the head of Katghadi panchayat, he said, adding no arrest was made as yet.

According to some people in the village, a group of villagers have been guarding their village during nights for quite some time after alleged burglary attempts in the village. Singh's car was stopped by the guarding villagers to find out their identity when the altercation took place.

The SDPO, however, said the motive behind the killing could be ascertained only after investigation. The attackers also torched the car in which the AJSU leader was travelling, the SDPO said.

Apprehending the killings as politically motivated, the All Jharkhand Indian Union (AJSU) party, meanwhile, demanded a judicial probe into the incident.

"We can't believe that mistaken identity had led to the killings, because Mukesh was a popular figure in the district and his car carried his name plate with AJSU's flag colour in the backdrop," AJSU spokesman Dev Sharan Bhagat said, demanding a judicial probe to find out the motive behind the killings.

"Their car was held up at the railway crossing that was blocked to clear a train, leading the villagers to perpetrate the crime," he added.

Stating that Singh was the third AJSU leader who was killed in recent months, he said two other leaders had also been killed in West Singhbhum and Gumla districts recently.

"These killings are politically motivated, and if a judicial probe is not instituted by the government the party would resort to Deogarh district, Santhal Pargana division and Jharkhand shutdowns in that order to press for the probe," he added.