A 25-year-old youth was allegedly beaten to death by a group of people in a village near here suspecting him to be a thief, police said today.
The incident took place yesterday in Sonale village of Bhiwandi taluka in the district when a group of 15-20 persons allegedly assaulted a youth, identified only by first name Babu, as they suspected him to be a thief against the backdrop of few incidents of robbery in the village recently, they said.
Bhiwandi Police Station sub-inspector Vijay Shirsat said the youth was beaten up with sticks and pelted by stones by the group, injuring him severely.
Babu was rushed to a private hospital in Bhiwandi where he succumbed during the treatment, the officer said, adding that the body has been sent for postmortem.
According to police, one of the attackers has been identified.
A case has been registered under IPC Sections 302 (murder), 146 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon) in this regard and hunt was on to nab the accused, he said.
Crying foul, Vinod's elder brother Sandeep said, "There is
a clear cut conspiracy. We suspect that Vinod was killed first and then his body was dumped at the rail track. Behind everything is either the police or the girl's family or both working together."
Sandeep (22) said when he returned home from work last evening, he got to know that Vinod was taken to the police post, so he went there too.
"Officials there said Vinod would be let off after some formalities. So I asked them to release my brother in the morning for his own safety and left the police post around midnight," he said.
He said, in the morning, the neighbour told us about Vinod's body and we rushed to the spot. When we questioned police, they told us that Vinod had run away from the police post.
"But he had recently had a surgery on his leg, following an accident, due to which he could not even walk properly. It is not possible that he just ran away," he said, adding that even if Vinod did so, the police should have called his relatives.
No suicide note was recovered from the spot. The body has been sent for postmortem examination. Investigation is underway.
Both Sandeep and Vinod are school dropouts and worked at a nearby factory.
