Mob lynching of accuseds in Arunachal on Tuesday echoes Dimapur, 2015

On Tuesday, February 19, a mob barged into a police station in Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh's Lohit district. They dragged out two men who were accused of raping and killing a five-year-old girl at Namgo village, and then lynched them on the streets of Tezu, police said on Wednesday.

The mob overpowered the police personnel at Tezu police station, and pulled accused Sanjay Sobar and Jagdish Lohar of Assam, out of the lockup. The crowd then stripped the men, dragged them through the streets and beat them to death, the police said. The bodies were left on a traffic roundabout in Tezu.

The body of the girl, who had been missing since February 12, was found near a tea garden a few kilometres from the village, on Sunday. The police claimed the two accused had confessed to the crime.

Expressing shock over the incident, Chief Minister Pema Khandu ordered a police enquiry by DIG Eastern Range Apur Bipin and said the report must be submitted within seven days. Khandu also ordered a magisterial enquiry into the episode.

Three policemen, including the in-charge of Tezu Police Station and a woman sub- inspector were suspended and the SP was transferred for their “inefficiency” in dealing with the matter, an official release said.

Lohit district's deputy commissioner has promulgated prohibitory orders under section 144 CrPC, restricting the movement and assembly of more than three people at any one time in the Tezu town area.

The chief minister, who described the rape and the mob action as "barbaric and inhuman", expressed solidarity with the family members of the minor. He, however, said the police and judiciary should be equally respected as they were meant for the safety and security of the people.

This incident of mob lynching of accused has an echo in the incident at Dimapur, Nagaland in 2015. On March 15, 2015 a mob had broken into Dimapur Central Jail and dragged out a rape accused Syed Farid Khan. The mob stripped him naked, paraded him down a road and lynched him. Farid Khan, who hailed from Karimganj district of Assam, had been arrested on charge of raping a college student in Dimapur on February 24, 2015 and remanded in judicial custody the next day.