In a brutal way of delivering instant justice, a mob pulled a truck driver out of his cabin, poured kerosene on him and set him afire after the truck he was driving ran over a boy cycling to school at Asansol in Burdwan district on Wednesday.

The driver Abodh K Singh finally succumbed to third degree burns while being shifted to the city late last night, police said.

Singh, driving along the national highway at Asansol, about 170 kms from here, suddenly lost control and hit Bikash Bauri, a Class X student, cycling to his school.

Sensing danger, Singh tried to escape, but the locals gave him a chase and shortly caught up with him, police said.

Further attack

After dragging him to his vehicle, the mobsters smashed the truck’s windscreen, punctured the tyres and locked him up inside the cabin.

Very soon, word spread that the boy had died in the hospital, prompting the mob to attack him again.

No mercy

Singh was pulled down and mercilessly thrashed. Some goons in the crowd suddenly poured kerosene on his clothes and set him afire. Singh’s cries for mercy fell on deaf ears as the mob jeered at the hapless truck driver, burning on the middle of the highway, throwing traffic out of gear.

By the time Singh’s wife Devi rushed to the spot, the driver, his clothes having been completely burnt, lay unconscious on the road.

When police finally arrived, Singh managed to regain his senses and was immediately taken to a hospital in a critical condition.

Doctors at the local hospital advised that Singh be rushed to SSKM at Kolkata for treatment in a separate burn unit.

He collapsed on way to the city, police said. So far, 23 people have been arrested and murder cases registered against them, a senior police official said. “It’s a very deplorable and sad incident which must not recur,” he said.

Previous incidents

In an increasing trend of people taking law into their hands, a man was lynched at Sonarpur little beyond the southern fringe of the city, by a mob for stealing bitumen early this month.

In the previous year, a promoter and his goons beat up and electrocuted a labourer for theft while another gouged the eyes of a worker for suspected theft in the city.