Tag: child-lifting

70-year-old Jharkhand’s man lynched on child-lifting suspicions

Source: hindustantimes.com

A septuagenarian man was beaten to death by a mob on suspicion of being child lifter in Jharkhand’s Sahibganj district, police said on Thursday.

The police, however, are yet to identify the victim, whose body has been sent for autopsy.

“We have lodged an FIR against unknown persons today and started probe,” said Sahibganj superintendent police (SP) Hrudeep P Janardhanan.

The incident took place in remote Kuchi Pahari area under Mirzachoki police station, around 440 km northeast of capital Ranchi, on Wednesday afternoon when the 70-year-old man went collect herbs from hilly place.

“I think the old man, who was looking very poor, died due to panic on way to hospital after being beaten by villagers. We found minor injury marks seen on his body. The autopsy report will reveal the actual cause of the death,” he said.

Sahibganj sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Nawal Sharma said, “The old man went to collect herbs from a hilly place. While retuning, few villagers suspected him as child lifter. They thrashed him at Kuchi Pahari village.”

After hearing this, the village head Sunny Pahariya rushed to the place and rescued him from the mob, Sharma said.

“The old man was being brought to Mirzachoki health centre. He was able to walk on his feet at that time. But, all of a sudden, he fell and died,” Sharma said.

During interrogation, some villagers told the police that the man was often spotted in the area, going to the hill to collect herbs.

The SP said they have been spreading awareness villages to counter child lifting rumours. “Since most of them belonged to Pahariya tribe in the tribal villages, they hardly understand Hindi. We have involved village heads and other people to spread awareness in this regard in villages,” he said.

In another incident, an elderly person was tied to an electric pole and thrashed by villagers on suspicion of being child lifter at Belbad village in Deoghar district on Wednesday. In Ranchi, a mentally disordered woman was beaten calling her child lifter. However, both of them were rescued by police in time.

Mob lynching on suspicions of child lifting has become common in Jharkhand, where the administration has been issuing public notice, warning rumour-mongers of stringent legal action. The Ranchi district administration recently issued such a notice which says, “Spreading rumour of child lifting is becoming a common affair. Punishing or physically torturing any person by any mob is a legal offence. Such people in the mob will be identified and legal action will be taken against them.”

‘Mentally unstable’ woman beaten to death in Bihar over suspicion of child-lifting

Source: timesnownews.com

Patna: An angry mob thrashed a woman to death in Vaishali district of Bihar over suspicion of her being a child-lifter. It is being alleged that the woman is mentally unstable. The mob allegedly tied the woman to a pole in Sehdai Buzurg block of Vaishali and mercilessly thrashed her until she died, the police said on Friday. 

The woman was beaten up with sticks by locals after being tied to a pole. While angry locals beat up the woman, others played mute spectators as they watched the woman being thrashed. 

The police are suspecting that the woman lost her mental balance after her child went missing or after it died. The woman was caught by the locals when she entered one of the houses in the district while looking for her own child. 

Locals alleged that they had seen the woman in the nearby areas a few days ago. At that time, the woman was seen attending to a pile of clothes as if it were a child. According to a report, the woman does not have any recollection of how she reached Vaishali.

On the night of the incident, the woman entered one of the houses. She was telling the people residing in the house that her child had gone missing. The people living in the house allegedly presumed her to be a child-lifter and started thrashing her. Within minutes, the family’s neighbours joined and the woman was tied to a pole and beaten. 

After the woman died, the locals threw her body away from the spot. The police reached the area and recovered the body. The body has been sent for a post-mortem and efforts are being made to arrest the accused. 

This is not the first instance where people have taken the law into their hands and have lynched an innocent due to suspicion. Similar incidents have surfaced where people have thrashed women and men ruthlessly as they suspected them of being child-lifters or thieves. While these incidents are on a rise, no concrete step has been taken by the government to help these people. 

Woman thrashed by mob in MP over suspicion of child-lifting 

In July this year, another incident of mob violence came to light from Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar when a woman was beaten over suspicion of being a child-lifter. It was later alleged that the woman was mentally disturbed. The incident took place in the Cantonment area of Sagar. 

On being interrogated, the woman said that she was from Ratlam and that she did not know how she had reached Sagar. The police registered a case of assault in relation to the incident but none of the accused was arrested.