Mumbai, January 3, 2006 -  A British tourist was lynched by locals at a village in Raigad district, 120 kms from here, for allegedly "making advances" towards a woman, a senior police official said today, as per PTI.

Stephen Bennett (40), a resident of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, was beaten up with sticks and later hanged by locals in the Malsai village of Roha taluka in the wee hours of December 10, Inspector General (Konkan Range) Satyapal Singh said today.
Though four persons were arrested in connection with the case, mystery surrounds the murder as the Britisher was "in Roha for three days prior to have been killed," he said.

According to him, Bennett, who was on a tourist visa to India, alighted from Mumbai-bound train enroute from Goa at Roha on December 7.

Meanwhile, an investigating officer from the Roha police station said that he was killed by villagers for allegedly misbehaving with a local woman in the wee hours when she had stepped out to relieve herself.

"She complained to her husband who immediately started beating up the British man using sticks along with some others. He was later hanged to a mango tree in the village using a saree," said the official.