India Tomorrow
Kolkata, July 1— In an unending chain of lynching, a man identified as Sanaullah Sheikh, father of three children, was lynched by a mob in Malda district of West Bengal on Friday. One Bappa Ghosh, associated with the CPI-M earlier and now attached to BJP, had allegedly led the mob.
According to a report in The Hindu, Sheikh, in his early twenties, was called to the Baishnabnagar market, about a kilometre from his village Chak Meherdi, in Malda district on Friday.
“He was asked to start a bike so that he could be framed as the one stealing it,” an official told The Hindu. “He was then thrashed by five or six persons, who could be identified from a video,” an official told the English daily.
Sheikh used to live with his three children, wife and mother in Chak Meherdi and was “largely unemployed.”
Locals alleged that Bappa Ghosh, associated with the CPI-M earlier and now attached to BJP, had allegedly led the mob. However, Swadhin Sarkar, Chief Whip of the BJP and Baishnabnagar MLA said that Ghosh “is associated with the Trinamool Congress.”
He also said: “The beating started and very unfortunately the person died. No Hindu-Muslim colour should be given to it and the culprits should be punished.”
However, local Trinamool functionary Paritosh Sarkar said the “culprits are not associated with our party.”
“It is not a Trinamool-BJP thing but a law and order issue. One person has been arrested on the basis of the video. The rest will also be identified and arrested,” Mr. Paritosh said.
Congress MLA from the adjoining Assembly segment Isha Khan Chowdhury and Trinamool’s district president Moazzem Hossain visited the area.
The Malda lynching has occurred about a week after a youth Tabrez Ansari was lynching in Jharkhand. He was mercilessly thrashed by a mob on suspicion of theft. The incident took place on June 18. In a video of the assault that went viral on social media, some people in the mob were seen asking him to chant Hindu slogans like “Jai Shri Ram” and “Jai Hanuman”. The local police arrested him on a theft complaint and rather than sending him for proper medical treatment he was sent to jail after first aid. His condition deteriorated in the jail and later died in hospital on June 22. He had got married just two months ago. After his death, some cops were suspended, a case was registered against lynching and 11 people from the mob were arrested. The incident led to nationwide protest by civil society and condemnation from both the ruling and opposition leaders. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also expressed pain over the incident and sought harshest punishment for the culprits.
