A tea garden security guard died on outskirts of Silchar in south Assam’s Cachar district on Saturday.
While his family claimed he was lynched by a mob while enforcing the ongoing lockdown at a market police said he died of high blood pressure after a quarrel.
The guard has been identified as Baktaruddin Barbhuiya, 52.
Cachar SP Manabendra Dev Roy said Barbhuiya was died at a vegetable market in Sonabarighat village on outskirts of Silchar town probably because of blood pressure after a quarrel with a paan shop vendor.
No injury marks on his body was found even as his wife claimed that Barbhuiya was lynched by a mob while enforcing the lockdown.
The SP said that the body of the guard was taken to the Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) , where an inquest examination is being done to ascertain the cause of his death.
Police have detained five people for questioning about the incident.
Barbhuiya’s wife, who works at a nearby tea garden, however, told the media and police that her husband was hacked to death by some of the sellers and buyers in the market that was open in breach of lockdown order enforced by the Assam government.
The state government on March 24 announced that all markets in the state, except for grocery, vegetables, milk shops, petrol pumps and pharmacies, would remain closed till March 31, causing the shops and markets turned overcrowded by frantic buyers in a rush to purchase essential items.
The Assam government had raised the ATSF in the mid-1990s by recruiting ex-servicemen of the Assam Industrial Security Force during 1993 and 1996 to provide nominal security to the 765 tea gardens. The ATSF works under the Assam Police.