Businessman Khitis Mondal Tied To a Tree And Lynched to Death by A Mob of 10-15 in Satkhira of Bangladesh On Fabricated Allegations of Theft

Khitis Mondal, 52, a fish-farm businessman from Jeyala village in Satkhira’s Tala upazila, was detained on suspicion of stealing fish from a local fish enclosure at around 3 a.m. on 16th October. According to local accounts, 10–15 people took the aged Hindu businessman to the Jeyala cremation ground, tied him to a tree and brutally assaulted him.

Rescued in critical condition after around 5 hours, Mondal was admitted to Tala Upazila Health Complex. He died at noon, before arrangements to transfer him to a more advanced hospital could be completed.

Mondal’s family says the brutality was all the more incomprehensible because he himself operated a fish farm on four bighas of land. His wife Sulekha Mondal had reached him while he was still able to speak and stated that Khitis had identified some of his attackers before being taken to hospital.

According to investigating officer Mohsin Ali, police personnel have prepared an inquest report, arranged for a post-mortem examination and begun steps to identify and arrest those responsible.

These steps must lead to more than routine paperwork. Investigators must establish individual culpability, preserve evidence, protect witnesse and ensure a prosecution that withstands judicial scrutiny.

A society cannot claim to follow democratic values and the Rule Of Law when a crowd becomes investigator, judge and executioner. Nor can the state discharge its duty merely by investigating a death after it occurs.