Amid continuing incidents of attacks and lynchings in the country, a young woman was thrashed by locals in Tamil Nadu’s Melur, on Thursday, 12 July, on suspicion of being a child-lifter.
“The woman was beaten up by residents of Pathinettankudi in Melur district after they tied her hands with a rope,” the police told PTI.
The police later rescued the woman and admitted her to the government hospital in the town.
The woman was reportedly seen having biscuits in her hand, which prompted the villagers to mistake her to be a child-lifter. Police said they could not get any information from the victim, who suffered some injuries, as she was not speaking.
Another woman who had come with the victim managed to escape.
Locals told PTI there were rumours that women from North India were on a mission to kidnap children.
The attack comes in the backdrop of a spate of similar such incidents in several parts of the country, with people either being beaten up or lynched on suspicion that they were child-abductors, which prompted the government to ask social media operators such as WhatsApp to clamp down on rumours.
On 1 July, two migrant labourers were beaten up by locals in Chennai on suspicion that they were trying to abduct a child.
A Hindi-speaking man was clubbed to death on 28 April by a group of villagers in Vellore district, who suspected him to be a child-trafficker.
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