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'Attack Them, They Are Child Kidnappers': Brother Of Jharkhand Lynching Victims Claims Cops Provoked Violence

Uttam lost two brothers in the lynching.
ANI/Twitter

The account of one of the victim's brothers of the mob lynching that killed six people in Jharkhand, on suspicion of kidnapping children, indicates that the police may have incited the mob.

NDTV quotes the Uttam Kumar Verma, the brother of Vikas and Gautam who were killed by the mob, as saying, "The police had arrived. But they didn't help. They told the crowd, 'they are bachcha chors (child kidnappers), beat them'. They encouraged the attack."

He said that his brothers wear beaten and kicked and died in front of his eyes as the police stood and watched.

Twenty people have been arrested so far in connection with the lynching. A compensation of ₹2 lakh had been offered to the family of the victims, but Verma said his family had refused it.

NDTV reports Verma as saying that they had begged and pleaded with the mob for 45 minutes. He said that his other brothers and mother came to the area where the lynching took place, but nothing could save his brothers. The mob had blocked them from

Meanwhile, Jharkhand State Home Secretary S K G Rahate had said on Monday that a probe had been ordered into the two incidents of vigilantism in Rajnagar in Seraikela-Kharswan district and Nagadih in Jamshedpur, that claimed four and three lives respectively.

A PTI report on Monday said that 18 people had been arrested in connection with the lynching incident at Nagadih on 18 May, and the subsequent violence on 20 May.

The other two were held on Sunday in connection with the lynching of four persons of a community in Seraikela-Kharswan.

The PTI report said that Rahate told mediapersons in Ranchi that social media sites were being monitored and a WhatsApp group admin had already been questioned.

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