Bengaluru: In yet another incident fueled by fake messages forwarded on WhatsApp, a 30-year-old man was trashed by a mob over suspicion of he being a child lifter.
The incident took place in Mangaluru’s Ujire when the victim identified as Khalid was travelling with his two-year-old son in an auto.
According to a report, two passersby on a bike noticed that Khalid’s son was crying, and they followed him to a local restaurant where he had gone for tea. They confronted Khalid about the crying toddler, but when they could not get a proper answer, they started beating Khalid and branded him as child lifter.
The victim repeatedly said that he was a father of a crying toddler, but no one listened to him. He was rescued only when police intervened after they received a call.
The police took Khalid to the police station and when his wife confirmed that he was indeed the father of the child, he was then let go.
Police said that no case was registered as Khalid did not want to press charges against anyone.
Several incidents of lynching are taking place across the country over rumours on social media sites.
On last Sunday, five people were lynched by a mob in Maharashtra’s Dhuledistrict over suspicion that they were part of a gang of “child lifters.”
on July 2, Maharashtra police averted another incident of mob vigilantism in Nashik District’s Malegaon and rescued five people.
In June, a woman beggar was beaten to death and three others were injured after they were allegedly beaten by a mob on suspicion of being a child-lifter.
A man suspected to be child-lifter was beaten to death by mob in Chhattisgarh.
In Maharashtra, two men were beaten to death and seven others were injured after a mob of villagers attacked them on suspicion of being robbers in Chandgaon village in Vaijapur taluka on June 8. The lynching was triggered by fake messages in circulation on the social media.
Earlier last month, in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district, two people were pulled out of their vehicle at and beaten to death by a group of irate villagers, who suspected them to be child-lifters on the basis of fake information circulated on social media.