A 27-year-old Muslim youth was beaten to death and his two associates were injured when a mob attacked them on the suspicion that they were illegally chopping wood in a forest in Rampur area of Bansur tehsil of Rajasthan’s Alwar district on Thursday night.
The deceased, Wasim, was driving a pick-up jeep, in which his relative, Asif, and a friend, Azharuddin, were travelling with him.
The mob was carrying sharp-edged weapons, sticks and iron rods. Those who attacked the Muslim youth included forest officials.
Anti-Muslim slogans were also raised by the mob while attacking the Muslim men, Times Now reported.
The villagers used a JCB excavator to block the road and forced the Muslim men to exit their vehicle. Another jeep from the Forest Department, which was tailing them, arrived at the scene.
Neemrana Additional Superintendent of Police Jagram Meena said that they detained 10 persons, including four forest officials, for interrogation.
In the police complaint, Tayyab Khan, the father of Wasim, said that his son had bought the wood from a nearby dealer during the day and later used a pick-up jeep to transport it to Rampur at night.
The police have seized the jeep of forest officials and registered the FIR under Sections 302 (murder), 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly), 323 (causing hurt) and 341 (wrongful restraint) of Indian Penal Code.
