Two policemen, whose involvement in the brutal dragging of a petty thief tied to a motorcycle during a mob attack shocked the nation, were given a virtual clean chit by a Bihar legislative panel.

The five-member panel recommended that L B Singh, an assistant sub-inspector and constable Ramchandra Rai, who were dismissed from service be reinstated.

It concluded that the cops were in fact trying to save Mohammed Aurangzeb from the menacing mob which, it said, tied him to a motorcycle in which he was dragged for several metre after being beaten black and blue.

The torture, which the victim was subjected to on August 27 and captured vividly by TV channels, had led to an outcry amid demands for stern action against the cops.

The panel chaired by CPI-M's Basudev Prasad Singh said the punishment the two cops got were too harsh and that it, too, amounted to violation of their human rights.

"Though the committee did not find the policemen completely innocent, the punishment they got for the offence was too harsh. We have not given them a clean chit but found them partially responsible for the torture of the youth," Singh said.

He said the committee had recommended reinstatement of the policemen after a warning or, at the most, denying them an increment.

A mob punched and kicked Aurangzeb after he allegedly snatched a gold chain from a devotee in front of a temple at Nathnagar near Bhagalpur and then tied him to the policemen's motorcycle.

The man, with only his pants on and writhing in pain and crying for help, was shown on TV channels. The man was then dumped on a cycle-cart to be taken to the police station before being sent to a hospital.