A 35-year-old Dalit man was lynched in Odisha’s Deogarh district after a mob accused him of killing a cow, according to police reports quoted by PTI on Thursday.
The incident took place on Wednesday in Kundeijuri village under the Riamal police station limits. Six people have been arrested in connection with the killing.
The victim, identified as Kishore Chamar from Kaunsidhipa village, worked as a cattle skinner. His coworker, Goutam Nayak, who was also attacked, managed to escape with injuries, Deogarh Superintendent of Police Anil Kumar Mishra said, Scroll.in reported.
Police stated that the mob allegedly caught Chamar and Nayak cutting up a cow. Despite the men explaining that the cow had died naturally and they were only skinning it, they were accused of killing the animal.
The incident follows a similar case from over two months ago in Odisha’s Ganjam district, where two Dalit men, Babula Nayak (54) and Bulu Nayak (42), were assaulted and humiliated by a mob that accused them of smuggling cattle.
The attackers reportedly demanded ₹30,000, and when the men refused, they were beaten, forced to crawl, and made to consume grass.