Attacks on innocent people over rumours of child-lifting continue unabated in Uttar Pradesh despite the stern warning issued by the state government to book the culprits under the National Security Act. In fact, such incidents have increased over the past week.
On Saturday, mobs thrashed half-a-dozen people, including a Delhi resident and a woman beggar, over rumours of child-lifting.
On Thursday, Director General of Police OP Singh had said that 82 persons had been arrested for spreading rumours of child theft and had warned that the authorities would invoke NSA against rumour-mongers.
Under the National Security Act, a person can be detained for as long as required and authorities need not disclose the grounds of detention.
According to fresh incidents, a Delhi resident was attacked in Muzaffarnagar when he was on a personal visit to the district on Saturday morning.
Police said Anandpuri area residents suspected the Delhi resident to be a child-lifter and thrashed him but an investigation found him to as innocent.
In Ballia also, a mob physically assaulted a woman beggar on Friday, suspecting her of being a child-lifter, in Kotwali police station area. The woman was rescued by police.
In Banda, four labourers were beaten up in Atarra township. Police said the labourers were taking rest at Lohia canal bridge when rumours of them being child-lifters spread. A mob soon gathered at the spot and beat them up.
The labourers were handed over to police, which allowed them to leave after questioning them of three hours.
Police said action would be taken against people who beat the labourers after their identities were established.
Four such incidents have been reported from Rae Bareli, including one in which an engineer working in a private telecom firm was attacked by 50 people, and one from Kanpur on Friday. Some villagers were arrested in the Rae Bareli incident.
Senior Superintendent of Police , of Bulandshahr, Santosh Kumar Singh, told media persons that at least 40 people had been arrested in the district in cases of violence related to child-lifting rumours.
On Thursday, a Delhi police team in plain clothes, visiting Bareilly to probe a dowry case, was mistaken for child-lifters. They escaped mob fury after local police rescued them.
False cases of child-lifting incidents have also been reported. A 19-year-old man was arrested on Friday for reporting a false case of child lifting in a Noida village, police said.
Before that on Wednesday, police had arrested a man from Wajidpur village for allegedly spreading rumour about lifting of three children by car-borne men in Sector 135 of Noida.
The same day, a Health department team was attacked by a violent mob of around 150 people in Fatehpur district as they suspected the officials to be child-lifters.
In another incident, 10 people, including two policemen, were injured when a group of locals pelted stones at them in Khesahan village under Ghazipur police station area.
On Tuesday in Sambhal, a 40-year-old man escorting his seven-year-old ailing nephew was lynched by a mob on suspicion of he being a child lifter. On Monday, four people were arrested for allegedly thrashing a 50-year-old woman in Etah district on suspicion of her being a child-lifter, an official said.