Police arrested 23 people in connection with the lynching of 5 people in Maharashtra’s Dhule district on Sunday.
According to the police, rumours that a gang of child lifters were active in the area had been circulating through Whats App groups, an angry mob began attacking the men, eventually locking them in a room and hitting them with bricks and stones until they were lying unconscious.
Dhule Superintendent of police said in a statement, “We have registered a case and arrested 23 people till now. On basis of photos and videos of the incident, we have identified some more accused Currently 5 teams are searching for them”.
On Sunday, the five who were killed, along with a few others had reached the tribal Rainpada hamlet by a state transport bus. When one of them tried to speak to a girl child the villagers who had incidentally gathered there for the weekly Sunday bazaar attacked them, suspecting that they were part of a gang of child lifters, police said.
The police confirmed that 5 men were killed in the mob attack. Reports suggest that two of the men managed to flee. Reportedly, as the police prepared to take the bodies away, the villagers demanded that two of the bodies be taken out of the car to be certain that they were dead. Minister of State (MoS) for Maharashtra Deepak Kesarkar, urged people not to take law into their own hands and not to believe posts circulated through social media.
