A 43-year-old vegetable street-vendor was allegedly lynched by a mob of at least 20 on suspicion of stealing him a tractor in the wee hours of Sunday-Monday at Rambas village in Alwar district.

The victim, Chinranji Lal Saini, who received multiple injuries in the assault by the mob with lathis (sticks) succumbed to his wounds, both internal and external, at the SMS Hospital here where he was referred to from the Govindgarh Hospital, the Superintendent of Police Alwar Tejswani Gautam told SNS on Tuesday when contacted.

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A tractor of one, Vikram Mev, was stolen by some unknown persons on August 13 at Kulhari village who left the vehicle at a deserted place in an agriculture field. While the police was carrying out a search and cordoning off highways in search of the tractor, relatives of the owner, on a lookout for the vehicle, reached the spot where they found Saini attending to nature’s call in the wee hours.

Taking him for the thief, they attacked him. Soon, scores of people from the Mev community reached the spot in a SUV and joined them in assaulting the hapless victim. They all beat him up relentlessly and left him badly injured in the field on August 14.

After the incident, Saini was shifted to a hospital where the doctors declared him dead. Enraged by the incidents, villagers, mostly from Saini community, blocked the Ramgarh-Govindgarh in protest demanding an ex-gratia of Rs 50 lakh for the victim’s family and a government job for a family member of the victim.

Saini’s son said his body won’t be cremated until their demands are met by the government. Vendors of local sabzi mandi and general market observed a bandh in protest against the murder of their colleague by the community people.

The police force was deployed to contain the tense situation in the entire Govindgarh police station area after the victim’s son filed an FIR with the Govindgarh police station against the tractor owner, Vikram Mev, and 10 others, the SP said, adding ten persons have so far been detained and being interrogated.

When asked whether it was a ‘mob lyinching’, the SP replied in the negative, saying, “The case is registered under Section 302 of IPC of murder and other sections of IPC.”

Meanwhile, the body of the victim has been handed to his family after postmortem, and the cremation was held this afternoon at his village, the SHO of Govindgarh police thana Shiv Shankar said.