In the blink on an eye, an angry mob of armed villagers surrounds you. Armed with sticks and stones, they beat you mercilessly, stone you and drag you on the road. The police can do nothing to save you.
The details of events that unfolded in the four incidents, where two people were lynched and five were injured by angry mobs in Karnataka, were eerily similar. But one striking aspect of all the attacks was that they were all triggered by WhatsApp forwards.
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32-year-old Mohammed Azam was killed and three others injured in Bidar on 13 July. 25-year-old Kalu Ram was lynched in Bengaluru on 23 May, 28-year-old Alvar Singh was beaten until he fell unconscious in Kalburgi on 19 May and 30-year-old Khalid was travelling with his daughter on 5 July, when he was attacked by a mob, which alleged he was a child abductor.
Even though the common factor in the crimes is as clear as day, different units of Karnataka police are investigating the case differently. Only in the Bidar lynching case the state police arrested those responsible for sending the WhatsApp forwards. The other three crimes were treated as usual cases of murder and assault.
But neither the cyber crime branch nor the local police have launched a probe to find out the origin of these WhatsApp messages.
How a Lynching Was Planned on WhatsApp
WhatsApp was crucial in deciphering what had happened in two villages in Bidar – Balkut Gokul Tanda and Murki, where Mohammad Azam was lynched.
If the messages already doing the rounds on WhatsApp about child lifters led to a confrontation in the first village, the photos and videos from the first village led to attacks and lynching in the second village.
An investigator told The Quint that the problems began when the passengers in the car started distributing chocolates to children in Gokul Tanda. The car they were driving was new and didn’t have a registration number. The villagers, who had already seen the WhatsApp videos about child lifters, soon surrounded the four men and a scuffle broke out.
Even though one of the four, Afroz, who knew Kannada, tried to pacify the crowd, the situation had gone out of control. During the melee, all of them managed to get into the car and escape.
From a Message to a Coordinated Attack
Round number two of the mob attack started after the men escaped Gokul Tanda. Villagers from Gokul Tanda flooded WhatsApp groups of nearby villages. The messages claimed the men were armed with guns and machetes. One of the WhatsApp groups that received the message was ‘Mother Murki’.
This group had several villagers from Murki and neighbouring villages in it. Alerted by the message, the villagers created blockades on the highway. While trying to pass through one of these blockades, the car toppled, leading to the attack.
The police have arrested one of the admins of the WhatsApp group ‘Mother Murki’ – Manoj Biradar. “But we are still on the lookout for the men who sent the photos and videos of the first scuffle on the WhatsApp group,” said a senior police officer.
No Such Arrests in the Other Three Mob Attack Cases
Days back, a similar lynching had happened in Bengaluru. Kalu Ram, a merchant from Rajasthan was killed by a mob, which claimed he was a child abductor. Although the attack was fuelled by a WhatsApp forward on child abductors, only a case of murder was registered.
In the other two cases in Kalburgi and Mangaluru, where a mob attacked the men under the false assumption that they were child abductors, the police failed to act against those spreading the rumours on WhatsApp.
A chilling video of a man covered in blood, his hands tied up with a rope and being dragged on the road by two minor boys has emerged.
(Photo Courtesy: Screenshot from the video/ The News Minute)
When The Quint contacted the three police stations, where the cases were registered, the officers admitted that WhatsApp had a role to play in the attacks. Chamrajpet police, which investigated the murder of Kalu Ram, said several people had received such messages, and to track down the origin of these forwards, a state-wide or even a nation-wide effort was needed. They claimed they lacked the resources for the task.
Similar stories were shared by the Mangaluru and Kalburgi police.
The Cyber Cell of the Karnataka CID, which is tasked with tracking inter-state cyber crimes, said neither was any case registered with them, nor did the state government ask them to probe any of the recent cases.
Tracking WhatsApp is Futile: Experts
Praveen Sood, DGP, CID said arresting WhatsApp admins would be a mere knee-jerk reaction. Unless awareness is created, the menace will continue. “In a case of lynching the real crime is the murder even though the WhatsApp message would have been the trigger,” he said.
He pointed out that even if the cybercrime police investigate these messages, chances of convictions are low. “These messages go through thousands of groups. We can identify the admins and those who sent the messages. Then we will have to arrest thousands of people and connecting them to a lynching incident would be tough when the case goes to a court,” he added.
However, a retired DGP rank police officer pointed out that the police needs to move away from conventional policing in the era of the Internet. “We can’t say that murder is the real crime and the messages have no culpability in the murder. Unless action is taken against those sending such messages, even if it doesn’t lead to conviction, there will be no deterrence,” the officer added.
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