Man lynched in Bihar’s Sitamarhi for informing about Covid-19 suspects

A 24-year-old man was lynched in Bihar’s Sitamarhi district after an argument over the information he shared about people who came back from Maharashtra on the state government’s helpline for Covid-19, police said on Tuesday.

The man, identified as Babloo Kumar, was on way to his uncle’s house when a group of locals thrashed him in an area under Runnisaidpur police station late on Monday.

He was rushed to Runnisaidpur primary health centre where doctors referred him to the Shrikrishna Medical College & Hospital (SKMCH) in Muzaffarpur where he was declared ‘brought dead’.

Babloo had called the helpline to give information about two people who had returned from Maharashtra with their families to Madhaul village. This allegedly angered the families.

His elder brother Guddu said a joint team of medical and local police personnel reached the village and took them for tests and released after advising them home quarantine.

He said Babloo worked in Maharashtra’s Pune and came back to the village two months ago.

A case has been lodged against seven people—Thaga Mahto, Sudhir Kumar, Vikash Mahto, Madan Mahto, Deepak Kumar and Munna Mahto—on the basis of Guddu’s statement recorded by the Ahiyapur police station in Muzaffarpur district.

SKMCH under the Ahiyapur police station had forwarded the matter to Runnisaidpur.

Also read: States told to stop, shelter migrants walking back home amid lockdown

Devendra Prasad Singh, the station house officer of Runnisaidpur police station, said out of the seven accused two—Sudhir and Munna—have been arrested and raids are on to nab others.

Hundreds of thousands of such workers who work in other states have been coming back to their villages after a lockdown was imposed from March 25 to check the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It left millions of such migrant workers jobless and many defied the restrictions imposed on movement as they tried to return home on foot in the absence of any public transport.

The Centre has asked states to seal their borders, provide migrant workers shelter and food, and set up quarantine centres to prevent their further movement until the lockdown ends.

The continuing movement of migrants has prompted authorities in Bihar to issue directions for keeping all those returning home under a mandatory 14-day quarantine. Officials said about 100,000 workers in Bihar are in government-monitored quarantine facilities and that many more on roads in different states.

In a separate incident, a mob in Jehanabad’s Dayali-Bigha village attacked a medical team and damaged two vehicles including a police patrol car when a team from the Modanganj block administration reached the village after they got information that some people had returned from New Delhi and Durgapur in West Bengal.

Sub-divisional police officer Prasant Bhusan Shrivastava said a medical team reached the village after they got information about suspected Covid-19 patients but villagers chased them from the spot.

The medical team led by Ajay Kumar, the block development officer, has detained a man for a checkup.

Irate over the action, villagers attacked and damaged the vehicles and snatched the cell phones from some of the team’s personnel. A case had been lodged and raids are on to nab the culprits, police said.