A man accused of murder at a village in Uttar Pradesh was beaten to death in the presence of policemen this morning. A mob was seen beating the man with sticks, unchecked by the police, in a chilling video of the incident that took place in Kushinagar in eastern UP.
Several policemen in riot gear were present and some were seen trying to control the crowd but the blows did not stop even when the man lay motionless. The police station in-charge in the area has been suspended for negligence.
The man's head appeared to have been bashed in and the ground was splattered with blood by the time the crowd was done with him.
Videos contradict the police version of a murder they failed to prevent.
According to the police, the man was from Gorakhpur and rode a scooty into the village, looking for a teacher, Sudhir Kumar Singh, claiming to be his brother's friend.
He had tea while waiting for Singh, who was apparently taking a bath. As soon as he saw Singh, he took out his father's gun and killed the teacher, according to the police. It is not known yet why.
After shooting the teacher, the man tried to escape but on spotting a crowd outside the house, climbed the terrace, waved the gun and fired it to keep villagers at bay.
According to an officer, a police team followed him to the terrace but the man escaped and was caught by a crowd, which set upon him. Soon, someone called the police and a team arrived.
"The cops climbed the terrace and asked him to surrender. There was an exchange of fire and then the man climbed down from the terrace and tried to bolt himself inside a room. A crowd pounced on him and before the cops could climb down from the terrace, he was beaten so much he died," said Vinod Kumar Mishra, police chief of the district.
A video that emerged later, however, showed the man in police custody before the mob grabbed him and started attacking him with stones.
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world