On 16th September, the Seven Christian villagers were tortured and beaten up and were forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram” by the gang of over two dozen people on allegations of cow slaughter in the Simdega district as per the reports.
They also shaved part of their heads on false suspicion by Hindu mobs.
But the matter came into limelight on September 25 after a former zilla parishad member and social activist Neel Justin Beck told a local news portal about it.
The victims were also insulted with casteist slurs and a case under SC/ST Act had been registered.
According to reports, Deepak Kullu, a 26 year old tribal Christian, said a group of more than 25 men with stick and rod-wielding had entered the village early on September 16 morning.
They were apparently residents of nearby villages.
“I saw them beating a villager, Raj Singh Kullu, and hurling caste-related expletives at his wife Jacqueline Kullu. When I sought an explanation, they started abusing me also with casteist slurs, and accused us of slaughtering cows”, said Deepak.
He added, “Raj continued to plead that no one had killed any cows. But the mob showed us what seemed to be a fake video of an elderly man from a neighbouring village saying he had seen cows being slaughtered.
The mobs dragged Deepak and six other villagers Raj, Emmanuel Tete, Sugad Dang, Sulin Barla, Soshan Dang and Sem Kido from the village to the neighbouring village, all the while slapping and beating them with sticks and forcing them to chant “Jai Shri Ram”.
The mobs have been identified as Deepak Prasad, Sonu Singh, Aman Keshri, Nakul Patar, Nayan Keshri,Tulsi Sahu, Sonu Nayak, Shrikant Prasad, Rajendra Prasad.
Shams Tabrez, the superintendent of the district said, “A case has been registered under the SC/ST Act and several Indian Penal Code sections. A special investigation team led by the sub-divisional police officer is conducting raids to arrest the remaining accused.”
The state had witnessed such lynchings of Muslims on unconfirmed charges of cow slaughter or beef possession between 2014-19.