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           | Patna, Jan 2 : Bihar began the New Year on a violent note   with three people being lynched in two separate incidents - two on charges of   being thieves and one over a petty dispute.  Two suspected thieves in their 30s were beaten to death by a   mob at Mirganj in Gopalganj district. 
 The day before, on Thursday, a   pavement stall holder was lynched in Ara, the district headquarters of Bhojpur,   over a petty dispute during New Year celebrations, police said.
 
 Last   year, over four dozen cases of lynching were reported from the state.
 
 In   September 2007, 10 people from the underprivileged Kueri community were beaten   to death in Vaishali district over an alleged theft. Later, a high-level probe   found that the men were not thieves as the villagers had suspected.
   
      
     
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