One day after Dussehra Hindu festival, an 82-year-old Muslim man Zainul Ansari was lynched in Bihar’s Sitamarhi and no case could be lodged against the culprits in the case after 22 days of the incident.

There were rumours that hand of an idol was broken after a stone was thrown from a mosque when a Durga idol was being taken for immersion. However, nobody could see the broken or damaged hand ever after.

Zainul Ansari was cycling his way seven kilometer away from his home after visiting her sister. When people warned him that he should avoid going to the area, he said he was an old man nobody will say him anything.

Thousands of people had gathered for the Maa Kaali procession and ruled out the local administration’s instruction not to go through the sensitive route of narrow streets where majority of Muslims were residing.

The mob, which carried sticks, iron rods, pipes, axes and swords, chanted slandering slogans against Muslims.

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When the visibly Muslim old man reached the site, the lynch mob started beating him. After he was badly beaten and severely injured, he was set on fire. One of his pictures, show him lying on the ground with a pool of blood under his head, which was later chopped off.

The police station was not more than five minutes’ drive away where Ansari was lynched. But they arrived after his body was burnt beyond recognition. No arrest could yet be made in the incident.

Sitamarhi Superintendent of Police Vikas Barman said Zainul Ansari might have been attacked due to a sudden emotional outburst. He was beaten and he died, he said. “We will look into how his body was charred.”

“Though we have not lodged a separate case in Zainul’s death, we have filed a case of serious rioting in which murder section is also added for recovery of a body against unknown accused,” he said.