Athar Hussain’s horrific ‘killing’ third reported case of lynching this year in Bihar’s Nawada – Alt News

Trigger Warning: Disturbing Details

The alleged murder of 50-year-old Mohammad Athar Hussain in Nawada is the third reported incident of mob lynching in the southern Bihar district this year.  

Hussain, a garment seller who hailed from Gagan Diwan village in Laheri police station area of Bihar Sharif in Nalanda, was brutally assaulted by a mob on December 5 in what is being described as a communal hate crime. He succumbed to his injuries on December 12. The previous incidents — reported in February and August — were not communal in nature.

Once a sub-division of Gaya, Nawada became a district in 1973. It has five constituencies: Rajauli, Hisua, Nawada, Govindpur, and Warsaliganj. With a religious demography of 88.53% of Hindus and 11% Muslims, Nawada houses over 2.5 lakh people belonging to religious minorities.

Hussain lived with his in-laws in Nawada and sold clothes moving around on a bicycle. On December 5, while returning home in the evening, he was stopped by a group of men in Bhattapar village in Noh block after he had asked them for directions to a repair shop to mend his punctured tyre. According to a family member Alt News spoke to, there were four to five men. They asked him his name and, upon learning that he was Muslim, robbed him of Rs 16,000 to Rs 18,000 before attacking him.

In a video Hussain recorded before his death, he recounted the horrifying torture he had been subjected to. “I had gone to Dumri to sell clothes and got a little late in returning home. It was around 8 pm. The harassment started just before Bhatta,” he stated in the video. After robbing him of his money, the clothes he was carrying and the bicycle, the mob took him to a room and locked him inside. “They opened my pants to check if I was a miyaji. They poured petrol on me and beat me. After that, one boy cut my ear with pliers… Someone was beating me with a stick, someone with a rod, someone was cutting my ear with pliers, breaking my fingers, burning my flesh. They climbed onto my chest until blood came out of my mouth… They broke my hand,” he recounted.

Eventually, someone Hussain later described as an ‘angel’ came to his rescue and called the emergency number 112. Police reached the spot around 2.30 am and took Hussain to the Roh Primary Health Centre.

From there, he was referred to Nawada Sadar Hospital and finally to Vardhman Institute of Medical Sciences, Pawapuri, where he breathed his last on December 12. Hussain is survived by his wife and three minor children, two daughters and a son.

A case was registered under Sections 190, 191(2), 191(3), 126(2), 115(2), 118(1), 118(2), 117(2), 117(4), 109, 74, 303(2), 352, and 351(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

Eleven people have reportedly been arrested so far, including two minors. The nine adult accused have been identified as Shri Yadav, Ranjan Kumar, Kedar Yadav, Gariban Yadav, Yadu Yadav, Chandan Yadav, Piyush Kumar, Sikandar Kumar, and Vipul Kumar. 

According to the victim’s wife, Shabnam Parveen, the police did not inform the family about Hussain’s condition until she reached the hospital the following day. She also alleged that he did not receive timely medical treatment. A family member told Alt News that they wanted to shift Hussain to a private medical facility, but permission was denied by the police. “He was alive for a week after the assault. Maybe if the police had let us provide him with better treatment, he would have survived,” he added while speaking to Alt News.

It has also emerged that one of the main accused, Sikandar, had lodged a complaint against Hussain. According to the complaint, Athar Hussain had entered his house and stolen a gold bangle, a mangalsutra, a silver waist chain, and brass utensils. It was further alleged that when he was caught, Hussain attacked Yadav’s brother Satyanarayan with a rod, injuring him.

Shabnam described these allegations as false and baseless. Roh police station in-charge Ranjan Kumar has told the media that investigation was on and all possible angles, including the theft allegation, were being looked into.

Speaking to Alt News four days after Hussain’s death, locals from Nawada said there was a palpable sense of fear among people where the alleged crime took place. A prominent political leader from the Opposition camp, who did not wish to be named, said, “Hussain’s killing was the first communal hate crime reported here in a very long time. Communal feelings do exist — given the current atmosphere, that is perhaps unavoidable — but an incident like this, where someone is lynched after being identified as a Hindu or a Muslim, has never happened. All that we get to hear are minor incidents, for example during Ram Navami. But an assault as violent as this, that resulted in a death, has happened for the first time.”

“The people whom Hussain approached had been drinking. In that inebriated condition, who knows what went through their minds. They were intoxicated, and that is possibly why they acted with such brutality. I do not believe anyone in their senses would commit such an act. The manner in which he was beaten, tortured, and burnt in unimaginable,” the politician remarked, blaming the administration for allowing easy access to alcohol even though Bihar was a dry state on paper.

Third Incident of Lynching this Year

Athar’s alleged lynching is the third such incident reported in Nawada district in 2025.

On August 28, an elderly couple — Gaya Manjhi and his wife Samudri — were brutally assaulted and humiliated in the Panchugarh Musahari village in Hisua block of Nawada district on accusations of witchcraft. The couple was made to shave their heads with lime applied to their scalps. They were also forced to drink urine and made to wear garlands of shoes and slippers and then paraded through the neighbourhood and beaten mercilessly, leading to the death of the husband.

According to Nawada SP Abhinav Dhiman, the assault took place after a music system malfunctioned at a birthday celebration at the house of a local named Mohan Manjhi. Locals considered it inauspicious and the couple, who were suspected of practising sorcery, was dragged out of their home and assaulted.

Police received an emergency call the next morning at 8, and found Gaya dead, and Samudri wounded. The assaulters had even tried to bury the couple alive at a local crematorium, but police intervened just in time. Samudri was taken to the hospital. A video clip shows a police officer attempting to communicate with a traumatised Samudri, who is seated beside her husband’s corpse with a garland of shoes around her neck and lime smeared on her unevenly shaved head. 

Another case of mob lynching was reported from Bhagwanpur village Nawada block in the same district on February 26 after a mob brutally assaulted two young men on suspicion of theft. According to reports, a complete gold set, a locket, 10 pairs of silver anklets, toe rings, and other jewellery, along with two smartphones, were recovered from them. One of the youths, Mrityunjay Kumar, died from the assault, while the other, Pravesh Kumar, was seriously injured. Based on a complaint by the deceased’s mother, four people were arrested. 

Isolated Incidents with No links: Nawada SP

Nawada SP Abhinav Dhiman refused to accept that mob mentality was becoming a trend in the district. “These are one-off incidents; the victims were either thieves or suspected to be one. For example, in the recent incident in Roh, the accused was mistaken for a thief on the prowl, that is when the mob attacked him. In the earlier case in Muffassil also thieves were caught, and they also had a history of committing theft. In the third case in Hisua, the couple was attacked on charges of committing black magic in the area. These are isolated incidents with no links,” he told Alt News.

Asked if three lynching cases in a year was alarming from an administrative point of view, the SP said, “Whenever people get angry at something, like a thief being caught red-handed, before police arrive, locals tend to take law into their own hands. When such incidents happen, we try to send a message. In the recent incident, we arrested 11 people. In Hisua, we arrested 17 people. Wherever there is any such incident, law takes its own course, and we make sure that anyone who committed a crime is brought to book. I don’t think comparing data from one year to that from another year makes much sense. These are one-off incidents, and they can happen anywhere.”

The 2019-batch IPS officer, who is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, acknowledged that at times, it was difficult to anticipate crimes and preempt them. “These are all isolated incidents and very difficult to preempt. For example, in the Hisua incident, it was basically a lack of awareness. People still believe in black magic in rural areas. So sensitization and awareness drives can definitely work, and we are making some headway in that way. But incidents of theft where people are caught while they are committing some illegal act are difficult to prevent. We are carrying out sensitization drives, we are making sure that people are made more sensitive and made more aware of the repercussions of taking law into their own hands,” he told Alt News.

Alt News spoke to a local journalist who acknowledged that crime rate was indeed high in Nawada. “There are frequent sporadic incidents in Nawada. Some take on a bigger form. It’s difficult to say why. Something or the other happens here almost daily. Maybe there’s a lack of understanding about how law enforcement works. When people get agitated they take law into their own hands,” he said.

On being asked about the efficiency of police work, he said that apart from taking post-facto action, senior police officials regularly issue awareness messages, including videos telling people not to take the law into their own hands and to inform local police or senior officers. “In all three cases (of lynching), police took immediate action… Crime can be controlled, but not entirely prevented,” he added.

The political leader we spoke to echoed a similar sentiment. “Police cannot be present everywhere at all times. But as soon as they got information (about Hussain), they took action. They took the body to the hospital, then immediately arrested four people, and later arrested more…,” he told Alt News.

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