Two thrashed by mob for theft of LPG cylinder, 1 dies

An angry mob thrashed two alleged gas cylinder thieves in Jharkhand’s Jamshedpur city early Monday morning, resulting in the death of one while the other was injured, police said.

According to the officials, the incident occurred at Jahertollah under Sidhgora police station (PS) in Jamshedpur around 5:50 am on Monday when Aman Mandal and Sanjiv Dhan were caught with a gas cylinder by an angry group of locals allegedly fed up with the repeated incidents of theft of cooking gas cylinders from their homes in the past three to four days.

“They started thrashing them, and police later rescued both and rushed them to the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College Hospital (MGMMCH),” said a police official.

“Police received information of two people being beaten up by a group of police station Jahertollah under Sidhgora PS around 5:58 am this morning. The police team rescued Aman Mandal (22) and Sanjiv Dhan (25) and rushed them to MGMMCH, but Aman died during treatment. We have shifted the injured Sanjiv Dhan to the Tata Main Hospital (TMH) for better treatment. City deputy superintendent of police (DSP) has been entrusted with the responsibility of conducting an in-depth investigation,” Mukesh Lunayat, Jamshedpur city superintendent of police (SP), told Hindustan Times on Monday.

The city SP further said that a first information report (FIR) under sections of mob lynching and murder has been lodged at the Sidhgora police station based on the preliminary statement to the police by the surviving victim.

“The FIR has been lodged against a named accused and unknown others. Raids are going on to nab the accused identified by Sanjiv Dhan. Preliminary investigation found that there have been a few cases of theft of cooking gas cylinders from some houses in the locality during the past 3-4 days. Another FIR has been lodged based on the complaint of cylinder theft by one such person from whose house a gas cylinder was stolen,” added Lunayat.

Police confirmed that Aman Mandal had been regularly involved in theft cases and has at least six cases against his name in Sidhgora, RIT, Adityapur, and other PS.

“He had come out of recently,” added Lunayat.

Injured Sanjiv Dhan said that Aman called him early morning Monday to sell the gas cylinder.

“We left our homes around 4:00 am to sell the cylinder, but about 29-25 persons caught us near Jahertollah. They started beating us with sticks. The police saved us and brought us to the hospital. My right hand has been broken,” Dhan told the media.