Youth lynched for killing village head

LUCKNOW - A Class 12 student was lynched by a mob in Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh district after he and his two aides shot dead a village head, police said Friday.

Three motorcycle-borne assailants, including the student Rinku Pathak, killed Umashankar Rajbhar (40) Thursday night while he was talking to some people in his Belwana village.

“The three shot dead Umashankar near the Martinganj market after which a group of villagers chased them. The three stopped briefly after their motorcycle developed some problem. The locals, who were following them, managed to catch two of the three criminals and assaulted them,” police inspector Anil Tiwari told reporters Friday in Azamgarh, some 300 km from Lucknow.

“The villagers attacked Rinku and his associate with wooden sticks and stones and Rinku died. We learnt that Rinku was a Class 12 student of the Rashtriya Inter College in Azamgarh…We cannot confirm Rinku’s age but he appears to be around 18 years old or so,” Tiwari said.

Rinku’s aide is being treated at a hospital in Jaunpur district and his condition is said to be serious.