Vendor lynched to death over Rs 30

An ice-cream vendor was allegedly hacked to death by six men on Friday evening at Maharajpur, Kaushambi, merely for Rs 30. Only three men were identified by the police out of which one was detained by the police on Saturday.

The victim, Mohammad Islam, was selling ice-cream on Friday afternoon when Imran, Rashid, Momin and three others came to his shop to purchase ice-creams worth Rs 5 each.

“The six did not pay Islam for the ice-cream and started to walk away. When Islam asked them to pay Rs 30 for the ice-creams, an argument broke out between them and the six beat Islam with iron rods,” said Mohammad Mubarak, the victim’s brother.

He added that the six men left Islam in an unconscious state on the road and fled. The police reached the spot and took the victim to a local hospital where the doctors declared him brought dead. The police sent the body for post-mortem. An FIR was lodged against the six accused under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

“On external examination of the body, it was found that there was a severe injury on the back of the victim’s head which may have resulted in his death. However, the post-mortem report is awaited and the exact cause of death can be known after the autopsy report,” said Ashish Srivastava, circle officer.

The police said that they detained one of the identified persons accused in the incident on Saturday afternoon.

“The police has detained Rashid from Maharajpur who was involved in the incident. We are questioning him for the whereabouts of the others and they will be nabbed soon as well,” said Mr Srivastava.