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Dhule lynching: ‘Victims were pushed, dragged 400 metres before being lynched’

Dhule police are now looking for two villagers from Gotilamba, who they have identified as “instigators”. The police suspect these two people manhandled the victims and led them to Rainpada, where a Sunday bazaar was underway.

The widows of the victims who were lynched in Dhule by a mob who suspected them of being child-lifters. (Express Photo)

A DISTANCE of 400 metres separates Gotilamba from Rainpada village in Dhule district in Maharashtra. On July 1, this 400-m distance turned fatal for five people from nomadic tribal communities. The five were were lynched at Rainpada on suspicion of being child lifters.

Piecing together the sequence of events, police probe has revealed that local residents first confronted the five at Gotilamba, after they were spotted offering biscuits to a local girl.

As rumour of child lifters’ presence spread from Gotilamba to Rainpada, the victims were pushed and dragged through the 400-m stretch by the mob. They died as a result of the beatings.

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Dhule police are now looking for two villagers from Gotilamba, who they have identified as “instigators”. The police suspect these two people manhandled the victims and led them to Rainpada, where a Sunday bazaar was underway. As the word spread that child lifters had been caught, the locals decided to teach them a “lesson”, the police said.

“The victims were members of the Govani community that begs for a living. In this case, the victims, who were camping at Pimpalner — around 40 km from Rainpada — left early July 1 morning,” Dhule SP M Ramkumar said.
“They took a bus from Pimpalner and around 10 am, got off at the last stop of Hanumanpada where they begged… They reached Gotilamba by 10.30 am. This is where they offered biscuits to a girl and were spotted by the two accused,” the SP said.

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So far, police have found 40 clips of the incident shot by bystanders on mobile phones. The police say those arrested are seen assaulting the victims in the videos. “Our focus is to arrest those who assaulted the victims, not the bystanders,” SP Ramkumar said. “We are studying the clips to zero in on the accused.”

While the police probe indicates that the rumour spread through word of mouth, what provoked the two “instigators” is still a matter of investigation. One of the viral videos being probed by the cyber cell in connection with the lynching case may not have originated in India, the investigators suspect. It shows bodies of children lined up in a room, with a voiceover in Hindi claiming that they are victims of a child-lifting gang, which kill children to sell their organs.

First uploaded on: 22-07-2018 at 01:46 IST
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