A teenage boy was beaten to death on the suspicion that he was trying to steal a pair of pigeons in Ketugram block of East Burdwan last night. The body of the 16-yearold boy was recovered this morning. Besides, two youths were caught while trying to loot cattle and were lynched at another village in Jamalpur block in the district. Biswajit Das of Pandugram village was the only son of Bikash Das, a wage labourer. The boy was a Class IX student of the local high school and had a passion to pet a bunch of pigeons. Bikash told police that two of his pet pigeons had gone missing somehow.

Yesterday afternoon, the boy, accompanied by two of his friends, Shubho Das and Babusona Das went out in search of the lost pigeons. The two boys told police that the ‘lost’ pigeons were detected sitting on the hood of a thatched house at neighbouring Masundi village. When the boys together were trying to trap the birds with the help of a mosquito net, some villagers caught and detained them. Babusona and Shubho told police that the villagers had thrashed them and then released them in the evening but fastened Biswajit with a tree and started beating him ruthlessly with bamboo logs. Today morning, the body of the boy bearing marks of wounds was recovered from the outskirts of Masundi village.

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The police registered a murder case and began an investigation. None have been arrested in this connection as yet. At Dakshin Moyna village in Jamalpur PS area, locals woke up after the midnight hours today with the noise of breaking of lock. The village, in recent times, recorded the burglary of three cattle. The residents suspected something was wrong and found a group of five outsiders were trying to smuggle cows and buffaloes from a cattle shed, breaking the lock.

When they chased, three of the miscreants managed to flee on a small truck but two of the gang jumped into a pond. They were dragged out of and beating. The police arrived at the village but one of the two had died by the time. Another was taken to Memari Block Hospital in a critical condition but he died in the early morning hours today. The deceased couldn’t be identified as yet.