Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentarian Nishikant Dubey has volunteered to shoulder the legal fees of four men, who are under arrest for allegedly lynching two men in Godda, Jharkhand, on suspicion of cattle theft.

While demanding a CBI probe into the incident, Dubey, who represents the Godda constituency, had called the decision “personal”.

As per media reports, Dubey had said that the accused cannot bear the legal expenses of the case, hence “I have decided to cover their legal fees”.

He further claimed that the four men are being unfairly targeted. “The entire village was involved in the beating, why are these four people being singled out just because their cattle was stolen?,” said a NDTV news report.

Two FIRs had been registered in connection with the lynching of two men on suspicion of cattle theft in Jharkhand’s Godda district.

The first FIR was registered on the complaint of one of the arrested persons, Munsi Murmu, under IPC 379 (theft) and 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property), Superintendent of Police, Rajiv Ranjan had said.

The second FIR was lodged on the complaint of Imran Ansari, the father of one of the deceased, under IPC sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly guilty of offence), 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 302 (murder), he said.

Lynched on suspicion of cattle theft

Earlier, DIG (Santal Paragana) Akhilesh Kumar Jha had said that five people had allegedly stolen buffaloes from the house of Munshi Murmu and others in tribal-dominated Dullu village on June 12.

Finding the buffaloes missing, Murmu and other villagers gave a chase to the five people, who were caught in adjoining Bankati village on June 13.

The enraged villagers thrashed Sirabuddin Ansari (35) and Murtaza Ansari (30) to death. The other three managed to flee. The victims were residents of Taljhari in the district, about 200 km from Ranchi, said Jha.

One of the victims of the lynching had in the past faced two cases of cattle theft in the neighbouring Dumka district, the officer said, adding the other deceased have been identified as Murtaza Ansari (30).

Besides Munsi Murmu, the other arrested accused in the case are Kameshwar Soren, Kishan Rai and Bhukul Kishku, the police said.

In March last year, a Jharkhand court had convicted a local BJP worker and 10 others for lynching a Muslim trader in June 2017. The convicts had beaten a 55-year-old man to death in Ramgarh district on suspicion of carrying beef in his van.