Lynch mob kills alcoholic near Nagpur for ‘raping’ minor

An irate mob in Saoli, a small town about 150km from Nagpur in Chandrapur district, lynched a man to death as the semi-nude body of a three-year-old girl was found in his room on Tuesday night. The mob set Deepak Pagadpalliwar, 28, on fire on a wooden pyre in the presence of hundreds of locals.

Pagadpalliwar died of burns, while the police watched the incident. The mob assumed that the accused, notorious as a troublemaker, had killed the minor after raping her.

The deceased child, Reshma Moreshwar Kawale, was untraceable since Tuesday afternoon after she returned from her anganwadi. Her parents, who are daily wage labourers, lodged a missing complaint with the police. She was last seen by neighbours playing with other children in the verandah.
While everyone frantically searched for Reshma in the neighbourhood, Pagadpalliwar kept inquiring if she had been spotted.
   
The police said some youths smelt a rat and decided to check his room at night. They found Reshma’s body wrapped in a soiled sheet in Pagadpalliwar’s one-room house while he sat on his bed in a drunken state. The girl’s parents fainted on seeing Reshma’s body and the locals seethed with rage.

The angry mob pushed aside the cops, dragged Pagadpalliwar outside his house and thrashed him till he fell unconscious. He was then placed on a wooden pyre and set on fire. Nobody moved till he died.

Locals said the accused was an alcoholic and that his mother, fed up with her son’s wayward ways, had moved to Chimbur. The police have filed two cases - one against Pagadpalliwar under sections 302 and 376 of IPC and the other against the people who killed him.

Saoli remained tense on Wednesday with shops remaining closed. The preliminary post-mortem report indicated that the girl had been raped. Over 400 locals were present for Reshma’s last rites. “Our priority is to ensure there is peace and normalcy in the town Chandrapur superintendent of police, Manoj Sharma, told DNA. “We will take action as we get further clues in the case.”
The police said Reshma’s parents are poor and live in a dilapidated hut in ward number 5, or Mali Mohalla. They also have a one-year-old son.