Six killed, 3 injured in lynching at Lonavala

Lonavala, Maharashtra, Oct 6 (UNI) Six persons, working as 'coolies' at the Lonavala railway station, were murdered and three others injured while they were sleeping for the paltry money they had in the vegetable market here.

The incident happened last night.

Lonavala Police Control told UNI that the six labourers were found dead on hand carts. Three others who were injured, have been admitted to a local hospital, of whom two have been shifted to Pune's Sassoon Hospital. Most of them had come here from Bijapur in Andhra Pradesh.

Later, addressing a news conference at Pune, Superintendent of Police (Pune Rural) Vishwas Nangre-Patil said they have arrested one man, hailing from Uttar Pradesh, in this connection, who is an associate of the prime accused.

The accused, identified as Manish Kumar Pandey of Gorakhpur village, came to Lonavala from Khandala along with the prime accused, Babanmia Yadav (28), a native of Jaunpur in UP, by train. Yadav was employed with a security agency.

They alighted at Khandala station, where Yadav first attacked a man sleeping on the roadside with a stone, killing him and stole petty cash from him. The duo later went to Lonavala vegetable market, where he apparently assailed five drunken labourers who were asleep after the day's work, with bamboo sticks killing them and reportedly stole they cash they had. The police have recovered some blood stained clothes.

Pandey, in his statement to the police, said he had nothing to do with the murder and added that only money was the motive behind the crime.

Mr Nangre-Patil told reporters that a man-hunt was launched comprising five teams this morning and after getting leads, they have arrested Pandey. He expressed confidence that the Yadav will also be apprechended soon.

Meanwhile, Lonavala was tense today, with people feeling insecure. All major political parties cutting across party lines called for a bandh to protest the incident.

UNI