Amid back-to-back lynchings in West Bengal, a 35-year-old Muslim man identified as Azgar Molla was beaten to death by a mob on suspicion of theft in Kolkata’s Bhanar area on Sunday, July 7.
The incident marks the fight lynching in West Bengal in the past 30 days and the ninth Muslim victim in India since June.
According to reports, Azgar who was a resident of the Phulbari area, was recovered by his family members about an hour after the attack at the spot located 500 meters from the Bhangar police station. Despite being rushed to a nearby hospital, he succumbed to his injuries.
Azgar has become the latest victim in a series of mob lynchings that have rocked the state in recent times.
According to a police statement, the exact reasons behind the incident will be investigated after the post-mortem and the “person appeared to be drunk”. The alleged incident took place on Sunday morning following the theft in Bhangar Bazar.
Pertinently, the Bhangar area of South 24 Parganas district has been a hotbed of political violence and recently the area has been brought under the Kolkata police to curb incidents of violence.
The police said that they had sent the body for a postmortem, registered a case of murder, and launched an investigation into the incident.
So far, there have been 12 reported incidents of lynchings, which include four non-Muslims since the Narendra Modi-led NDA government began its third straight term.
This is the 13th lynching since June 4, with most cases being reported from BJP-ruled states, four in Chhattisgarh, five in West Bengal, two in Uttar Pradesh, one in Gujarat, and one in Jharkhand.
Lynching spree grips West Bengal
In just two weeks, West Bengal has been rocked by a spate of over 15 mob violence incidents with dozens brutally assaulted and five dead.
The victims of the incidents, mostly belong to marginalized communities. They have been targeted on suspicion of crimes ranging from theft to child abduction.
In one incident, a young man named Biswajit Manna was beaten to death by a mob in the Hooghly district on Monday, July 1.
The initial probe revealed that Manna was called by the accused, who was known to the family when he was sleeping at his residence on Sunday night. Manna had taken a loan of around Rs 50,000 from the accused and had failed to repay the loan amount, PTI reported.
In another case that took place on June 28, a 47-year-old man was beaten to death by students on suspicion of theft in Bowbazaar of Central Kolkata. The victim identified as Irshad Alam, worked in a television repair shop.
The voice in the state has sparked a political row with opposition parties accusing the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) led by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of failing to maintain law and order.
Over 60 people have been arrested so far in the lynching incidents, with the state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s government announcing a compensation of Rs 2 lakh for the kins of the deceased.
In 2019, the West Bengal Assembly passed a bill “The West Bengal (Prevention of Lynching). The Bill also seeks the appointment of nodal officers to monitor and coordinate the prevention of lynching. The Bill seeks punishment by including the death penalty for those involved in mob attacks.
However, the proposed bill is still pending approval from the Governor as a result of being caught in the power struggle between the TMC government and then-governor Jagdeep Dhankhar.
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