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INDIA-CHILDREN-CRIME
‘Don’t believe social media rumours,’ Indian police urge after lynchings
NEW DELHI, May 29, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Indian police on Tuesday urged the
public against believing rumours on social media after a sixth person falsely
accused of being a child trafficker was killed by an angry mob.
A transgender woman was lynched and three others seriously injured in
Hyderabad city at the weekend by a crowd that linked them to a child
exploitation ring that police say does not exist.
The 52-year-old’s murder was the sixth this month in southern India
prompted by false and persistent rumours on social media about a child
kidnapping gang, police said.
A 42-year-old man was beaten to death last week in Nizamabad district,
about 160 kilometres (100 miles) from Hyderabad, after a mob accused him of
being a child kidnapper.
“There are no kidnapping gangs in Hyderabad,” the city’s police
commissioner Anjani Kumar told AFP on Tuesday.
“We warn (the) public… (against) harming anyone based on rumours on
social media.”
Dozens of police officers and locals marched through the southern city on
Monday evening with loudspeakers urging people not to take the law into their
own hands.
“Don’t believe the rumours,” the policemen chanted.
Police have arrested 35 people in connection with the beating of the
transgender woman on Saturday. She died in hospital on Sunday.
Authorities have issued warnings in Telangana — where the attack occurred
— and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu states where vigilantes
have murdered four others this month over the same rumour.
A hundreds-strong mob killed a labourer and injured seven others on May 20
in Andhra Pradesh, believing the men were linked to a child trafficking gang.
His death came a day after a beggar was lynched for the same reason in the
same coastal state.
Police said most of the victims were not from the localities where they
were killed.
Officials are yet to find any cases of child kidnapping related to the
videos circulating on social media platforms like WhatsApp.
But a dozen people have been arrested for circulating the videos, which
show men hoisting a child from outside a home and mutilating an infant.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1530 hrs