Dhule Mob Who Lynched 5 Was Instigated By Watching Syrian Video, Wanted to Burn The Victims

The Maharashtra police on Wednesday revealed a horrifying detail about the Dulhe lynching case in which five nomads became victims of mob lynching over suspicion that they were part of a gang of “child lifters”. There was so much anger in the mob that they wanted to kill and burn the bodies on the spot. “They wanted the bodies to be burnt there only”, a police official said, as reported by The Indian Express. They even tried to prevent the police from physically taking custody of the bodies.

“The villagers saw the men, who were dressed in strange attires, offering biscuits to small children. This aroused suspicion that they wanted to kidnap the children,” a former sarpanch of Rainpada, Sakharam Pawar, told PTI.

The victims were first beaten at Kakar pada village and later dragged for over a kilometre and brought to Rainpada. “They were continuously beaten on the way”, added Pawar.

Another villager, identified as Vishwas Gangurde said that when the five men were brought to Rainpada, the villagers tried to intervene and urged the mob to allow them to give their version, but all in vain. By the time the police had reached the spot, all the five victims were killed.

Actual video from Syria

As reported by NDTV, one of the videos that led to this mob lynching was so Syria. Managing Editor of Boomlive.in, which called out the video, said, “This hails from 2013 from a nerve gas attack that had happened in Syria. The bodies that you see are of Syrian children”.

The said video showed rows of children’s bodies. The video has narration in Hindi saying that these bodies were of children killed by gangs for harvesting their organs. In reality, the bodies showed in the video were of kids who died five years ago of a nerve gas attack in Syria.

Sensitization drives

The police have now launched a sensitization drive to keep the locals from believing rumours. To do this, the police have roped in ‘kotwals’ (village criers who make public announcements). As reported by The Indian Express, the these Kotwals would be spreading the message that rumours and unverified news of any kind should not be believed.

To further educate the 1,800 villagers of Dhule district, pamphlets are also being distributed. Dhule’s Superintendent of Police M Ramkumar told PTI in an interview that the local newspapers and news channels have also been approached to spread this message.

In the past month, as many as 14 lives have been claimed across the country in mob lynchings based on the “child-lifting” rumours that have been doing the rounds of social media.

In the past two months, incidents of mob lynchings have been reported in several states including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tripura, Gujarat, West Bengal, Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha.

Also Read: Maharashtra: This Youth And His Uncle Saved Five From Getting Lynched