RAJKOT: Eight people were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly lynching a man from Navi Dharampur village in Morbi district.
However, soon after the arrest of the eight men, women from the village held protest outside the police station demanding their release.
The women claimed that the deceased Bharat Parmar (31) and his aide Jagdish Thakor, who was also beaten up by the accused, used to harass them often.Those arrested include Jadav Vadecha (55), Bechar Bharvad (33), Shailesh Bharvad (29), Mahipat Upsariya (36), Sanjay Upsariya (30), Baldev Upsariya (30), Shiva Koli (65), and Ramesh Koli (30).
On Tuesday, a heavily drunk Parmar, who chased a woman shopkeeper and thrashed her with a stick, died allegedly after being beaten up by a group of villagers on Monday.
Parmar and Thakor, both autorickshaw drivers in Navi Dharampur village, had gone to the provision store of Chandrika Goswami, in an extremely inebriated condition and started forcing her to close the shop.
When Goswami asked them to leave, the duo started hurling abuses at her.
Bharat picked up a stick and chased her as she tried to save herself from the assault.
The video of Parmar and Thakor chasing Goswami went viral on social media.
In the video, Parmar is seen thrashing Goswami with a stick even as other villagers tried to stop him.
After the video started circulating in the village, some locals went to the houses of the duo and beat them up with iron pipes and other blunt weapons.
Both were taken to the Morbi Civil Hospital where Parmar again created some ruckus.
He was taken to the police station but as his condition worsened, he was taken back to the hospital where he succumbed.
Thakor, who suffered five fractures, is under treatment at Rajkot Civil Hospital and is said to be out of danger.