Police have arrested five youths for their alleged involvement in the mob lynching of the two Guwahati youths in Karbi Anglong on Friday evening.
The arrested youths have been identified as Anuj Timung, Babu Rongpi, Sarukon Swargiary, Kangkan Basumatary & Dibjyoty Basumatary.
Two youths-Nilotpal Das & Abhijit Nath- who were on a trip to a remote location in Central Assam’s Karbi Anglong district were lynched by a mob that turned barbaric suspecting the duo to be child lifters.
The Scorpio in which they were travelling in was also damaged in the attack by the mob.
The incident took place at around 7.40 pm at Kangthilangso, Dengaon under Dokmoka police station where the two friends had gone for a day.
A video, which has gone viral on social media, one of the youths, Nilotpal, was pleading before the murderers that he was an Assamese and from Guwahati.
With folded hands, Niloptal was heard while pleading for life, “Don’t kill me…please don’t beat me. I am an Assamese. Believe me, I am speaking the truth. My father’s name is Gopal Chandra Das and mother’s name is Radhika Das…please let me go.”
Also read: Assam left in shock, disbelief over youth lynching in Karbi Anglong
The mob, as seen in the video, did not stop but continued to beat Nilotpal and his friend Abhijit, with bamboo sticks and kicks.
According to a The Times Of India report, when Nilotpal and Abhijit earlier in the day had asked some local villagers for directions to Kangthilangso, few of them suspected them to be child lifters and alerted others in the area. Hours later when they were returning home, the waylaid their vehicle and killed them.
When one friend of Nilotpal from Guwahati had called him at around 8 pm, a different person picked up the phone and said that Nilotpal has been killed and they could watch the news on television the next day, the newspaper reported.
Nilotpal, who worked as a sound engineer in Goa, is from Nabagraha area while mechanical engineer Abhijit hails from Six Mile area in Guwahati.
Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has ordered a high-level probe into the incident and asked the Karbi Anglong district administration to take necessary steps so that such an incident does not recur.
Additional DGP (Law and Order) Mukesh Agarwal has been rushed to the spot along with a police team.
Semson Teron led Karbi Students Association (KSA) condemned the killing of the two youths. KSA in a statement said they are saddened by the brutal killing of the two young men.
“The incident is very painful. We called upon all sections of people of Assam not to take the incident in communal lines,” the KSA said.