In the last couple of months, unstoppable rumours about child-lifters circulating in social media have led to a series of incidents of mob-lynching across India. On Saturday, another such incident of mob lynching was reported in Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh wherein a mentally challenged woman was killed by a mob on suspicion of being a child lifter based on the messages shared on WhatsApp by the locals, as reported by The Times Of India

Villagers told the police that the woman, believed to be in her late twenties, was seen in the village for the last six months. On 21 July, some villagers spotted her roaming about in the town. They started questioning her. However, when she couldn’t answer them, the mob began assaulting her leading to her death.

The Morwa Police arrested 14 people for being involved in beating the woman to death and circulating false messages on WhatsApp. The woman’s mutilated body was recovered in the nearby forest on Sunday afternoon, as reported by NDTV

The senior officer, KS Dwivedi, told NDTV that the police have retrieved stones, axes and sticks from the crime scene and have sent them for forensic tests. The identity of the woman is still unascertained. “Primary findings suggest that locals killed her presuming her to be a child abductor. We have arrested a few people and are questioning them,” Singrauli District Superintendent of Police, Riyaz Ahmed told The Hindu.

Creating or sharing fake news is never justified. We have a responsibility to verify everything that we post on the internet. To ensure that our national debate is healthy and well-informed, every one of us has a responsibility of treating what we read with a pinch of salt, a spoonful of doubt, and a flood of research.

Also Read: From Assam To Tamil Nadu: The Fake WhatsApp Messages Of Child Kidnappers You Forwarded Have Taken Many Lives

Also published on Medium.