Four youths and a middle-aged man were killed in Jharkhan's Khunti district for allegedly misbehaved with women in the village, according to reports.
The incident came to light at a time when the country is demanding justice for the 23-year-old girl, who was gang-raped on Dec 16.
According to The Times of India, the offenders of the recent incident were beaten to death. One of them was charged for rape and was out on bail three months ago.
"The deceased used to frequently tease girls and women of Manho village. The police has information that the women were angry about it and on Saturday they gave vent to their pent up anger by beating them up with canes and pelting them with stones which resulted in their death," TOI quoted IG (special branch) S N Pradhan as saying.
The incident took place on Saturday morning when the five men were a quarrying a plot which was not possessed by them. Angered by their act, the villagers chased and beat the men repeatedly to their death.
"A group of 100 villagers, armed with traditional bows and arrows and canes, encircled the youths where they were digging out the stones and started beating them up with canes and pelted them with stones when they tried to flee. All were critically injured and succumbed to their injuries on the spot," the Khunti SP Amarnath Mishra.
The deceased has been identified as Suraj Mahato (22), Pappu (20), Prem (20), Ram Naik (22) and Mahindra Lal Prasad (42). An investigation would be carried out to determine what had really happened, said DIG (Ranchi range) Sheetal Oraon
"Pappu, Jitendra and Mahendra had been teasing girls and women in the village since a long time. Moreover, the mining of stones on that particular plot of land had been going on for a long time. Thus it does not seem to be the main reason behind the 'sendra' (lynching),"said Sheetal Oraon after visiting the spot.
