Assam police files chargesheet in Dokmoka lynching case

The Assam police has filed the charge sheet into the infamous Dokmoka Lynching case.

After almost 3 months of the barbaric mob lynching of two youths from Guwahati, Abhijeet Nath and Nilotpal Das at Panjuri village at Dokmoka in Assam’s West Karbi Anglong district, the state police finally filed the charge sheets.

The accused have been booked under sections 302, 341, 142, 427, 149 of the IPC. A total of 48 people have been arrested in the case and the police has as many as 71 witnesses at its disposal.

Earlier, Nilotpal Das, a sound artiste and Abhijeet Nath, a businessman were coming back from Kangthilangso, a picnic spot in Karbi Anglong, on June 8 when the vehicle they were travelling in was intercepted at Panjuri by a group of villagers.

With rumors doing the rounds then that child lifters were on the prowl in the district, the duo was mistaken to be child lifters and brutally beaten to death.

During the course of investigation it came to light that a person identified as Alphajoz Timung had orchestrated the attack. The accused Alphajoz had called up locals to stop the car, claiming there were two men inside, who were child-lifters. He was arrested on June 13 from Belughat area in Karbi Anglong.

In fact police sources said that Timung had a fight with the Abhijeet and Nilotpal near the waterfall and stoned their vehicle, before calling the villagers, who were already panic stricken over rumours of child-lifters in the locality for the past two weeks. He played a key role in instigating the mob say police sources.

Apart from Alphajoz, 47 others were held in the mob attack case and over 30 for spreading rumors on social media.

Following the gruesome incident, the crackdown on the misuse of social media was launched by the police, after initial investigations suggested that messages about child-lifters entering the state from outside, may have led to the lynching episode.

The police had also issued an advisory asking people to refrain from spreading rumours on social media.