In yet another incident of targeted killing of Hindus, a 17-year-old teenager, Rupesh Kumar Pandey, who was involved in the Saraswati Mata idol immersion procession was lynched to death by some radical Muslims in Dulmaha village of Hazaribagh, Jharkhand.

It’s been learnt that the Muslim mob kept beating Rupesh till he fainted. The fateful incident occurred when Rupesh Pandey along with others was on their way to immerse the Saraswati idol on February 6, when an altercation broke out between the devotees and the local Muslim youths near Lakhna Dulmaha Imambara in Naitand village under Barhi police station of Hazaribagh. The four Muslim radicals thrashed Rupesh to death.

Rupesh was taken to the hospital in an unconscious state, where doctors declared him dead. Given the news related to his death disseminating in the area, internet services were suspended by the administration, which has only been restored after 37 hours.

Briefing the media about the incident, DSP Nazir Akhtar said the incident was related to personal vendetta over a love affair and was not mob lynching. Bracing DSP’s claim, Hazaribagh SP Manoj Ratan Chote said four people, including one Aslam, involved in the attack had been arrested, and investigation is on. However, prima facie, the case is not mob lynching, added SP Ratan.

On the other hand, opposition leader Babulal Marandi tweeted that a young boy was brutally beaten to death in Barhi, which is a vivid testimony of the poor law and order situation in Jharkhand. He demanded that the administration should take strict punitive action against all the culprits, and compensation of one crore rupees should be provided to the relatives of Rupesh with immediate effect.

Many incidents of communal clashes have already come to the fore in the Barhi assembly constituency. On February 6, the same day when Rupesh was lynched to death during the immersion of the Saraswati idol, stones were pelted on Hindus in the Markaccho police station area of ​​Koderma. The devotees were going for immersion when the crowd of Muslim fanatics attacked them. Ten people, including a six-year-old kid, have been injured in the Markacho incident. Besides this, fundamentalist Muslims also attacked Hindu devotees in the Fitkoriya village in Karmatand police station area of ​​Jamtara on Saraswati idol immersion procession.

However, despite these attacks on the Hindus, the Hemant Soren government is busy doing appeasement politics and shielding the hooligans. The Soren government has recently enacted a law against Mob Lynching. However, Soren’s government has made it clear that this law is all but against the majority community by not adding relevant provisions of the newly enacted law in this case.