In a horrific incident, five people were killed in Maharashtra’s Dhule district on Sunday by villagers who suspected they were part of a gang of child lifters.
Police said the five, along with two others, had just got down from a state transport bus in the tribal Rainpada hamlet when they were targetted.
When one of them apparently tried to speak to a girl child, the villagers who had gathered for the weekly Sunday bazaar pounced on them, they said.
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“Five were killed in the mob fury,” said an officer.
The victims were brutally beaten by the angry villagers. While two people managed to escape, five died.
According to the police, there had been rumours for the last few days that a gang of child lifters was active in the area.
Also Read | Lynching of 3 people in Tripura: CM Biplab warns of stern action
According to media reports, 23 people have been arrested so far, while the police have identified more accused and will arrest them soon.
The rumours being spread on social media and WhatsApp have claimed several innocent lives in other states too.
In Assam’s Guwahati, a woman with special needs was tied to a pole and tortured by a village mob last week as they suspected her to be a kidnapper. Prior to that, young artistes Nilotpal Das and Abhijit Nath were lynched at Panjuri village in Karbi Anglong, Assam, earlier last month as locals suspected they were part of a child lifters’ gang.
Read More | Man from UP killed, four others seriously injured by mob in Tripura
On Thursday, a hawker from Uttar Pradesh was beaten to death by a mob in Tripura on the suspicion that he was planning to kidnap children in a village near Agartala. In Tripura, another man was killed by a mob the same day. The 33-year-old man, who was lynched, was only spreading awareness against rumours about child kidnappers.
(With agency inputs)
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