News Analysis |
According to a recent media report, five people were killed on Sunday in a recent lynching in the West Bengal’s state of Maharashtra. According to media reports, the Sunday incident occurred in the Rain Pada village in a tribal area, when the victim belonging to a group of five attempted to talk to little girls while disembarking off a bus.
The nearby villagers became suspicious and sprung on the men all the while beating them with stones and sticks. According to the reports, they later put the victims in a locked room and all five of the victims perished due to injuries.
On 18th June, Police in India has arrested at least 18 people for the mob-style lynching of two sightseers, attacks that were believed to have been fueled by social media posts. The two latest victims have been identified as Nilotpal Das, an audio engineer and Abhijeet Nath, a digital artist – both residents of Guwahati, the largest city in Assam.
Madhu died inside the police van while being taken to the police station. Last year, mobs killed six people in the eastern state of Jharkhand on suspicions that they had kidnapped children.
A mob of around 200 people beat Abhijit Nath and Nilotpal Das to death over the weekend after rumors circulated on social media they were child traffickers. The rumors were circulated mostly on WhatsApp, officials said.
Earlier, an Indian transgender was beaten to death over rumors on the social media sphere that the person was the member of a child-lifting gang. The member of the transgender community named, Chandraiah, was undergoing treatment in Osmania General Hospital. Commissioner of Police, Anjani Kumar said that the rumor was spread through a WhatsApp group and at least 15 people have been arrested so far.
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On 12th May, a 65-year-old woman was lynched by a mob in southern India who believed that she was a child trafficker, police said on Friday, announcing the arrests of some two dozen suspects. The crime took place in the state of Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvannamalai district on Wednesday following rumors and false messages on Facebook and WhatsApp about the kidnapping of children in the region.
The woman, who was traveling with her relatives in a car, had stopped to ask directions to a local temple when she saw some children playing in the area and gave them chocolates, local police officer K Neelavadakkan said. “Villagers who have been unnerved by the fake messages on child abductions gathered around the car and started shouting at them, accusing them of being child kidnappers,” he said.
The nearby villagers became suspicious and sprung on the men all the while beating them with stones and sticks. According to the reports, they later put the victims in a locked room and all five of the victims perished due to injuries.
“They managed to drive away but were blocked by mobs a short distance away, where they were dragged out, punched and kicked, and beaten by sticks. The woman died on the scene, while four others, including the driver, were seriously injured,” he added. Neelavadakkan said that there had been no incidents of kidnapping or child trafficking in the area, but rumors were circulating wildly.
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Last month, a man was mistaken for a thief and beaten to death by crowds in the same state. Madhu, a 27-year-old who lived in a tribal colony in Attapady forest, was beaten under the suspicion that he was a thief. Madhu died inside the police van while being taken to the police station. Last year, mobs killed six people in the eastern state of Jharkhand on suspicions that they had kidnapped children.
Many assert that mob violence has become an integral part of India’s’ social life due to the anarchic situation often fomented by Indian political groups especially Hindutva groups. With the use of mob violence, these parties often create an atmosphere of polarization of society in order to gain public support and votes.