A Hajipur court has issued non-bailable arrest warrants against the 10 persons accused of lynching 10 suspected thieves in Bihar's Vaishali district, police sources said on Saturday.

Chief Judicial Magistrate of Hajipur Court Anil Kumar Singh issued non-bailable warrants against 10 persons accused of lynching 10 suspected thieves on the plea of the CID. The CID is probing the lynching incident.

Earlier, the court had rejected the CID's plea for issuing non-bailable warrants against the 10 for want of sufficient evidences required for showing their prima facie, direct and indirect involvement.

The CID had on Monday prayed for the issuance of NBWs against them as it wanted them for an identification parade before one of the survivors of the gory incident Ranjit Kureri, admitted to the Patna medical college and hospital.

After facing flak from the opposition and the National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi Nomadic Tribes, National Human Rights Commission and PUCL, the state government has decided to initiate departmental proceedings against the police officers of Vaishali, including the then superintendent of police Anupama Nilekar for their alleged negligence in dealing with the situation arising out of the incident.

The personnel department of state government has also served showcause notice to then Vaishali district magistrate Lallan Singh in this coneection.

Taking serious note after the recovery of the bodies of eight of the 10 thieves that were half-eaten by dogs, Bihar government immediately transferred Singh and Nirlekar.

Besides, the government suspended three officials including Vaishali District Welfare Officer S B Mathur, Officer in charge of Hajipur town police station R K Singh and Officer in charge of Rajapaker police station Vibha Kumari.

Alarmed at the increasing number of cases of mob brutality in the state, the Bihar government has decided to impose a fine on the entire village if its residents take the law in their own hands while dealing with criminal offenders.

In the latest incident, a suspected thief was beaten to death by angry villagers on Friday morning in Gopalganj district. It was the second case of lynching within a week in district.