A woman was allegedly lynched by a mob near Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh on suspicion that she was a child-lifter, police said on Monday.
The woman, who appeared to be ‘mentally unstable’, was killed by the mob in Bhosh village under the Morwa police station on July 19, Morwa Sub-Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP) K S Dwivedi told PTI over the phone.
Believed to be aged between 25 to 30 years, the woman is yet to be unidentified, he said.
The lynching took place amid rumours on WhatsApp that child-lifters were on the prowl in rural areas of the district, the officer said.
The rumours were circulating for the last one month, Dwivedi said.
As many as 12 people were arrested on Sunday in connection with the lynching incident and produced on Monday in a local court, which sent them to jail, Dwivedi said.
The SDOP said some people spotted the woman roaming in the village at around 9.30 pm on July 19.
They stopped her, suspecting her to be a child-lifterand hit her with lathis and axes, Dwivedi said.
After killing the woman, the mob dumped her body in a drain in a forested area of Bhosh, some 90km from the district headquarters, he said.
Some villagers spotted the body on July 20 and informed the police, he added.
The police arrested 12 people and booked them forrioting and murder, among other charges under the Indian Penal Code, the SDOP said.
He said efforts are on to identify the deceased.
The Singrauli episode is the latest in a spate of incidents of lynching and mob violence reported from across the country in the recent past.
A few weeks back, five nomads were lynched in Dhule village of Maharashtra on suspicion that they were child-lifters.
Last Friday, a man was beaten to death in Rajasthan on suspicion of cow smuggling.
The Supreme Court recently took a strong view of such incidents and asked the Centre to frame a separate law to tackle this menace.
