Man studying in Bhopal college killed in Nepal

A 24-year-old man studying in India has been killed for opposing illegal mining of construction material from a riverbed in southern Nepal's Dhanusha district, police said on Saturday. Dilip Kumar Mahato, 24, who was pursuing his mechanical engineering from a college in Bhopal, was run over by a lorry.

On Friday, Dilip, who had been protesting against the illegal mining for the last two years, heard the clamour of loaders and tippers coming from the Aurahi river near his house, police said. As he began to quarrel with the extraction crew, a tipper ran him over, dragging him under its carriage and killing him on the spot, they said.

Four persons have been arrested in connection with the murder, including Bipin Mahato, the owner of the lorry. Dilip had returned from Bhopal late last month after his final examinations.

He had told locals that illegal mining would put his village at risk of flooding. Dilip had received death threats and was even offered inducements, but he continued to protest against the illegal operation.

"When he returned home two weeks ago, he wanted to stop the illegal mining permanently and once again got into fights with the crusher owners. Even our father was threatened by one of the owners -- Bipin -- on Wednesday," Dilip's older brother Birendra Kumar Mahato was quoted as saying by the local media.