A 20-year-old Muslim man was tied to a tree and beaten to death for being in love with a Hindu woman by the villagers in Jharkhand’s Gumla district, Hindustan Times reported.
The man, Mohammad Shalik, was allegedly in a relationship with a Hindu woman of a nearby village. The girl called him to meet her for the Ram Navami procession on Wednesday. Shalik initially refused to go but finally met her and dropped her home on his scooty, Police told Hindustan Times.
A group of neighbours saw the couple and tied Shalik to a tree. They assaulted him for hours. Shalik, who was taken to Sadar Hospital, succumbed to his injuries on the way to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi.
Jharkhand Police arrested three people in connection with the murder and lodged an FIR against unnamed people. “Though investigation is on, we were told by the villagers that the boy had been asked earlier not to meet the girl and never visit the village,” Gumla superintendent of police Chandan Kumar Jha was quoted by Hindustan Times as saying.
Shalik’s murder triggered communal tensions in Gumla town. Large numbers of police force were deployed in the area to control the situation.