PATNA: Police in eastern India helped a mob beat a suspected thief in front of a television camera, officials said on Tuesday, with one policeman tying the victim to his motorbike and dragging him until he passed out. The mob accused Mohammed Aurangzeb of stealing a womanÂ’s gold chain on Monday in Bhagalpur district of Bihar state, one of IndiaÂ’s most lawless regions. Television pictures showed men had tied the shirtless young manÂ’s hands behind his back, and were viciously kicking and punching him as he writhed on the ground, soaked in sweat and mud, begging for mercy, his trousers unbuttoned.
When the police turned up, one constable tied Aurangzeb’s legs to the back of a police motorbike, and dragged him along the road on his stomach and chest. “He was dragged for some time and the police constable stopped his bike only when Aurangzeb lost consciousness,” Afzal Amanullah, the state’s home secretary, told a news conference on Tuesday in Patna, the state capital. |