With reports of lynching of a Dalit woman in Agra over allegation that she chopped of a plait (Choti) of girls and women in National Capital Region and in other parts of the state, the UP government on Thursday issued an advisory terming the incident of ‘Choti chor’ as a rumour and urged people to police about persons spreading it.
Issuing seven-point advisory on behalf of DGP Sulkhan Singh, ADG (law and order) Anand Kumar said that people should not take law into their hands to prevent Agra like incidents.
Asking district police chiefs to set up village committees and security teams to counter the rumour, the advisory asked the district police to take stern action against offenders.
“We have asked the police to take the help of social media like Twitter, Facebook and Whatsapp to make people aware about rumours besides. The district officials have aslo been asked to holding meetings upto police outpost level to impart correct information through youths and digital volunteers,” said the ADG.
On Wednesday, an angry mob lynched a 65-year-old Dalit woman in Mutnai village of Dauki police station area of Agra terming her as a ‘witch’ who was chopping of braids of women in NCR region. The woman had lost her way home and villagers thought she was a witch who had come to chop off hair of women.
Even as the woman kept pleading for mercy from the assailants and even identified herself, the men continued kept hitting her with lathis. An FIR has been lodged for murder. After the incident, the accused fled are on the lam.
The police said that victim Maan Devi was mentally unstable and her appearance triggered panic among residents. After the murder, tension prevailed among Dalits of the area. However, the vioctim’s family members accused the people from different castes of lynching the woman.
Meanwhile in Etawah, ‘Choti Chor’ incident were reported from the district on Thursday.
As per sources, an attempt of cutting off hair of Geeta Devi occurred late Wednesday night while she was sleeping with her husband outside the house. Her husband got injured in the incident. The couple reported that they could only see a hand due to poor light. Panic gripped the area after the incident. Denying any such incident, police station in-charge Indrapal Saroj said that there was no incident of chopping off braid in the area and the couple were bitten by some insect and sent to hospital for treatment.
Another report from Gorakhpur said that a 17-year-old girl had her hair cut off on the direction of a tantrik in Campairganj area on last Tuesday. The police said that it had nothing to do with ‘Choti chor’ incidents. The Tantrik was arrested on Thursday.