Angry Mob of Doctors Beats Man to Death in India for Stealing Cellphones

A group of about 12 junior doctors at an Indian medical school tortured and killed a man they suspected of being a thief, according to local police.

The doctors from the 140-year-old Nilanjan Sircar Medical College and Hospital in the Eastern Indian city of Kolkata (Calcutta) on Sunday allegedly tied the man up in a private room, beat him with bamboo sticks and slashed his genitals with razors, AFP reports.

Kolkata’s deputy police commissioner Dhrubajyoti De told AFP that preliminary inquiries indicate that the victim, who was found lying in a pool of blood in a room at the college, was accosted by the doctors for stealing mobile phones. “The kind of marks on his body bear the marks of inhumane torture,” De said.

The victim was declared dead upon his arrival at the emergency room and has not yet been identified. Local newspaper Hindustan Times reported that he was caught in the act of stealing a cellphone from a room in the college dormitories.

According to the Times, two canteen workers have been taken into police custody for questioning, although one of them told reporters he didn’t know anything about the incident.