Police investigate mob killing of school director after 2 children found dead in north India

PATNA, India – Police are investigating the mob killing of a school director in northern India after two of the school’s students were discovered dead, officials said Monday.

The mob attacked the boarding school’s director on Sunday after the bodies of two boys aged 10 and 11 were found in a nearby pond, Nalanda district police Superintendent Siddhartha Kumar Jain said.

The students had disappeared a day earlier from the school grounds, and villagers accused school staff of killing them and dumping them in the pond. Autopsies later showed the boys had drowned.

Local TV stations broadcast video of the man being beaten with sticks and writhing on the ground as other people watched and stomped on his chest, stomach and limbs. He died of his injuries Sunday night.

When police arrived, the mob allegedly pelted them with stones and injured six officers. Police suspended an officer for failing to stop the attack in Nirpur village, about 90 kilometres (55 miles) southeast of Patna, the capital of Bihar state.

Residents of the director’s home village held angry protests after the man’s death, blocking road and train traffic and setting a vehicle on fire.