Mob kills Tripura farmer

A 36-year-old tribal farmer in Dhalai district of Tripura died on Wednesday morning, hours after a mob attacked him on suspicion of being a cattle thief.

Police said that the victim, Budhi Kumar Tripura, was hospitalised with serious injuries following a mob attack.

"Local people told us that he had entered the cowshed of a neighbour. He tried to flee when the house owner raised an alarm. A crowd gathered soon and caught him. As he tried to flee, this made the crowd suspect that he was trying to steal the cattle. He was beaten up very badly by a mob of 15-16 people at Noarampara village," said a police officer at Raishyabari police station, where the incident took place.

Raishyabari is about 135 km north of Tripura's capital Agartala.

"We rushed him to a hospital soon after we reached the spot. But he succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday morning," the police officer said.

The Police have registered a suo-motu case against 16 people under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC.

"Our investigation is on to identify those who attacked him (Kumar) and arrest them," he said.