Gujarat: Historysheeter lynched by mob over theft suspicion

VADODARA: A historysheeter died while his friend was severely injured after a mob of around 100 persons beat them up over suspicion of committing theft near Kali Mahudi village in Jhalod taluka of Dahod district late on Saturday night.
A case of murder, rioting and assault was registered against unidentified persons at Limdi police station in the early hours of Sunday.
According to the police, deceased Ajmel Vahoniya and his friend Bharu Palas, who has several cases of theft and robbery against him, had met on Saturday evening after they were released from Dahod jail in connection with a theft case around four days back. The duo was riding towards Jhalod town on Vahoniya’s motorcycle when they were stopped by around 15 to 20 people near Kali Mahudi village, around 150 kilometer from here.
The group asked them about their purpose of visit. The duo then told them that they were from Khajuria village and were going towards Jhalod. The group of attackers then suspected that the duo had come there to commit theft and started to beat them up with sticks. Vahoniya and Palas then started running towards a farm to save their lives.
Palas told the police in his statement that the group raised alarm and a mob of around 100 people surrounded them in the farm and thrashed them with wooden sticks. The duo fell unconscious. Police officials said that they were informed about the incident by some villagers when some cops were near the village for investigation of a road accident. When the police reached there Vahoniya had succumbed while Palas, who was still unconscious, was rushed to government hospital in Limdi in 108 GVK-EMRI ambulance. He was then referred to civil hospital at Dahod where he is currently undergoing treatment. A post-mortem was conducted on Vahoniya's body at government hospital in Limdi.
“Both of them have around 20 to 25 cases registered against them at different police stations. In fact, Vahoniya was even booked in a double murder case,” said Pravinkumar Judal, police sub-inspector, Limdi police station. He added that the police did not find any suspicious items from them nor any theft complaints were received from the village or surrounding areas.
Police said that there are in the process of identifying who all were involved in the incident and will make arrests soon.