Ashwini Kumar, Station House Officer (SHO) in West Bengal's Kishanganj, was lynched in Bengal’s Uttar Dinajpur district on 10th April. Ashwini was known for his strict policing and crackdown on liquor smugglers.
The officer had ventured into the neighbouring area with a team of eight policemen and two informers while conducting a raid to look for a gang of alleged motorcycle thieves who operated in Bihar.
Kumar was attacked at the house of the prime accused, Firoz Alam, where he had found a stolen motorcycle and started questioning the members of the house.
Other members of the Kishanganj police team managed to escape and have been now suspended citing dereliction of duty for leaving Kumar behind at Pantarpara and fleeing when they were attacked.
The West Bengal police have arrested three persons identified as Firoze Alam, his brother Abuzar Alam and mother Sahinoor Khatoon.
Alam’s family members passed the news of the impending raid to their friend and associate Mohammed Israel, who is close to the imam of the local masjid.
Israel reportedly went over to the masjid and used its public address system to announce the raid and incite the villagers to ambush the Bihar Police raiding party.
The crowd of Muslim men then attacked Kumar with rods and swords and killed him on the spot. The SHO was brutally beaten and throttled to death and his body was left abandoned at the spot. Later his body was taken to the Islampur hospital in Bengal, where doctors declared him brought dead.
Kishanganj SP Kumar Ashish said the mastermind, Mohammad Israel, and his son Mohammad Abdul were also arrested, adding altogether 21 named persons and 500 unknown people have been made accused in the SHO lynching case.
In an unfortunate development in the incident, Kumar’s mother Urmila Devi, 70, collapsed on seeing the body of her son at their Jankinagar home in Purnea district, and died soon after.
The inspector and his mother were cremated on Sunday at their ancestral village.
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