Tripura mob lynching case: Anti-rumour campaigner killed in state

AGARTALA, June 30, 2018: With fake news and rumour mongering in most of the states and people's mind being  manipulated resulting in dire consequences, yet in another case, a campaigner Sukanta Chakraborty, hired by Tripura's Information and Culture department to campaign against rumour-mongering, ended up being lynched late on June 28.

Mr. Chakraborty, 33, was one of the three people killed in Tripura within two days, on suspicion of being about child-lifters. These rumours are spreading like wild fire on social media prompting the government to ban internet services for 48 hours starting Thursday.

Five others, including a constable, have been injured in mob attacks.

The police initially thought Mr. Chakraborty had fallen prey to the rumour-mongering that he was assigned to campaign. They later said he could have been killed for "other reasons.

"A mob attacked his vehicle at Kalachhara when he was returning to Sabroom. He died but his driver, who too was beaten up, escaped with injuries," Smriti Ranjan Das, Assistant Inspector General of Police, told reporters in Agartala.

Earlier, locals at Murabari in Tripura West had beaten up three hawkers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, suspecting them to be child-lifters. They ran to a camp of Tripura State Rifles, but a larger mob stormed the camp and lynched one of them, identified as Zahir Khan of UP, despite the police using force to disperse them.

A mentally-deranged woman, believed to be a child-lifter, was also lynched by a mob at Bishalgarh in Sepahijhala district.

In view of the lynching incidents, Tripura's Director General of Police A.K. Shukha on Friday asked mobile phone service providers to suspend SMS and internet data services across the State till 2 pm on Saturday.

Chief Minister Biplab Deb, appealing to the people not to heed child-lifter rumours, said the scare was a CPI (M) conspiracy to tarnish the image of the BJP-led government in Tripura.

On May 31, the first case of lynching attributed to rumour-mongering about child abduction was reported from Assam's Karbi Anglong district where two young men from Guwahati died in the incident.

Featured image: The Hindu

Source: The Hindu

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