Tripura Police arrest 2 in Unakoti tea garden mob lynching case

The police also conducted a meeting with the management and workers of the tea garden and assured them that no innocent person would undergo any harassment due to the investigation into the lynching case.

According to the police, the lynching took place on Tuesday after three people, including the deceased, Pradeep Das, were spotted taking away goats from the roadside in their vehicle. As the trio was trying to flee, a group armed with sticks tried to stop them. While attempting to flee from the spot, the vehicle hit and injured a tea garden worker. The vehicle, thereafter, fell into a concrete drain, and Pradeep Das was caught and lynched. The mob also set the vehicle on fire. The others in the vehicle reportedly managed to save themselves by hiding in the nearby forest.

In February, at least five people were detained after a 35-year-old suspected thief was beaten to death by an irate mob at Belonia in South Tripura district.

In June 2021, three suspected cattle smugglers were lynched at two different locations in Tripura’s Khowai district.

Tripura hogged the headlines with a series of mob lynching incidents over rumours of child kidnappings in 2018.

The state government soon introduced the Tripura Lynching/Mob Violence Victim Compensation Scheme, 2018, for the assistance of victims of mob violence.

The state cabinet decided to implement the law, taking cue from a Supreme Court order in July 2018, wherein the apex court directed all state governments to frame rules for implementing the scheme within one month.

According to mob violence compensation rules, the state government has to pay Rs 4 lakh to families of people who die in mob violence, and Rs 2 lakh to those who get 80 per cent crippled, among others.