Boy killed as tea planter fires on mob

Guwahati, March 22: A schoolboy was killed and four others injured when a tea planter, accused of physically abusing a tribal woman, fired on a crowd in Guwahati’s outskirts on Monday.

The crowd went berserk after planter Mridul Kumar Bhattacharjee attacked a woman taking a short cut through the Rani tea estate, started beating her and tore her clothes. A large crowd tried to assault the planter, who opened fire with his revolver, killing Class 8 student Pradep Murali, and then escaped. The mob set ablaze two factories and several offices and vehicles.

Manoj Anand