HAZARIBAG (Jharkhand): In another instance of people taking the law into their hands, villagers in Jharkhand's Ramgarh district today lynched three persons on the suspicion of theft.

According to SDPO Sanjiv Kumar, a group of villagers guarding their plantations against rampaging wild elephants spotted some men around 1.30 am at Kodi village in the newly-created Ramgarh district.

The villagers chased and caught three of them after they fell into a ditch and beat them to death, Kumar said.
 
A fourth person was, however, handed over to the police.

The villagers take turns every night to protect their crop from elephants who stray into their village from a nearby jungle, Kumar said.