The Uttar Pradesh Police on Sunday suspended three of its personnel, including a sub-inspector, after a 38-year-old Dalit man was allegedly lynched amid rumours that he was a thief, reported The Hindu.

A day earlier, five persons were arrested in connection with the alleged assault that took place in the Unchahar Police Station limits in Raebareli district.

The man, Hariom, was lynched while on his way to his in-laws’ house on Wednesday, India Today reported. A few men stopped him on the Unchahar-Dalmau road and thrashed him after suspecting him of being a thief.

A video of the incident was circulated widely on social media. Hariom could also be heard saying a few words, including “[Congress leader] Rahul Gandhi”, according to The Hindu.

In a statement on Sunday, the police in Raebareli said that the “accused include people from Dalit/backwards and different castes; hence, it’s a request to not spread caste rumour, please cooperate with the police in maintaining law and order”.

Station House Officer Sanjay Kumar was removed from his post and attached to the crime branch, the newspaper reported.

Later on Sunday, Congress leader Pawan Khera said that Gandhi, who represents Raebareli in the Lok Sabha, had spoken to Hariom’s father and brother and stood “in complete solidarity with them in this hour of unbearable grief”.

“In his final moments, as he was being mercilessly beaten with sticks and belts, the deceased young man remembered his last hope – Shri Rahul Gandhi,” Khera said in a social media post.

The Congress leader added that Gandhi had expressed his “profound concern over the dangerous normalisation of lynching in India, vowing that such violent elements must face their legal end”.

Party leader KC Venugopal, on Monday alleged that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath had turned the state “into hell for the Dalits, minorities and backward communities”.

Venugopal asked why the chief minister was “silent when monsters are lynching Hariom, a Dalit man, to death and proudly claiming that they are ‘Baba wale log’ – almost as if such caste atrocities have his blessings?”

“It is evident that the BJP-RSS regime has given a free hand to those attacking Dalits and marginalised people,” the Congress leader added.

Party spokesperson Shama Mohamed said that she had come across the “disturbing” video on social media of Hariom being allegedly beaten to death.

“When he repeatedly said ‘Rahul Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi’, those criminals claimed they were supporters of [Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister] Yogi [Adityanath],” Mohamed claimed. “This is what the double engine of Yogi and [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi has done in Uttar Pradesh.”

She added: “Their politics of hate is taking the lives of Dalits and the marginalised. Muslims are under attack, women are unsafe, and Dalits and OBCs [Other Backward Classes] are being targeted – no one is safe under the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] government anywhere.”

Also read: What the ‘custodial death’ of a man from the Pardhi community says about India’s policing practices

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