At Least 11 Lynchings In Last Two Months Show That Mobs Quickly React To WhatsApp Rumours

India¡¯s obsession with fake news, rumours and forwarding of messages is leading to the killing of people across the country. The ¡®child kidnap¡¯ rumours doing rounds on WhatsApp have already led to the lynching of several people and the spate doesn¡¯t seem to stop anytime soon.

The country is gripped under a technology-fuelled frenzy because of rumours that spread via WhatsApp and the police say it is extremely difficult to debunk the messages on social media that spread like wildfire.

1. Thrashed on the suspicion of being a child-lifter in Madhya Pradesh
June 27

In the most recent case of mob fury triggered by rumours, a man was thrashed on the suspicion of being a child lifter in Madhya Pradesh¡¯s Singrauli district. The video of the assault was doing rounds on social media. The 38-year-old man was believed to be a part of a child-lifting gang. Police said that the man was a resident of a nearby village and had nothing to do with child lifting. He makes living as a 'Bahrupiya' (impersonation artist), the police officer said.

He was on his way to Dheka village for a performance where he was to do a woman's mimicry and was wearing a sari when he was attacked.

2. Woman lynched in Ahmedabad
June 26

On June 26, a 40-year-old woman, identified as Shanta Devi, was lynched by a frenzied mob on the suspicion of being a child lifter in the Vadaj area of Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

Devi, a beggar, was accompanied by three other women and had left her relative¡¯s house in Sardarnagar area of Ahmedabad in an autorickshaw. The mob attacked the women inside the auto, pulled them out and brutally beat them up. They accused them of being child-lifters.

Also read: How WhatsApp Rumours Of Child Traffickers Led To Two Mob Lynchings in 24 Hours In Tamil Nadu

Traffic cops intervened and rescued the women, but it was too late for Devi who was declared brought dead at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, said the Times Of India report. The other three injured women were admitted to the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital.

3. Woman assaulted in Surat
June 26

In yet another incident, a 45-year-old woman was assaulted on suspicion of being a child-lifter. The woman, identified as Labhuben Dinesh Tejani, was attending a family function, when she stepped out to buy balloons for her three-year-old daughter. It was then when people assumed her to be a child-lifter.

The mob quickly surrounded her and started accusing her of kidnapping the child. They pulled the child away from her and even slapped her a few times.

4. Man hacked to death in West Bengal
June 13

An unidentified man fell victim to rumour mongering in West Bengal. He was suspected to be a child-lifter and was tied to an electricity post and beaten to death by a mob in Bengal¡¯s Malda district. The homeless man in his thirties was asked why he had come to the village. The mob, dissatisfied by his answer, beat him to death.

5. Two men lynched in Karbi, Assam
June 8

Two youths from Guwahati were battered to death in Assam¡¯s Karbi Anglong district on suspicion of being child lifters. The victims, identified as Abhijeet Nath and Nilotpal Das, both in their thirties, had gone for a short vacation from Guwahati to a picnic spot. The spine-chilling video of lynching made rounds on social media.

Two youths from Guwahati were battered to death in Karbi Anglong district in Assam.

Eyewitness said that the two men were brutally hit by bamboo poles and wooden sticks and tortured to death by frenzied mob.

6. Two men beaten to death, several others injured in Maharshtra
June 8

Another case of lynching triggered by fake messages in circulation on WhatsApp came from Aurangabad, Maharashtra. According to PTI, two men were beaten to death and seven others were injured, one critically, after a mob of villagers attacked them on being robbers in Chandgaon village.

Also read: Lynchings In Jharkhand, Assam Explicitly Show That Indian Streets Are Ruled By Unruly Mob

Police said a mob of at least 1,500 villagers allegedly attacked nine men with wooden sticks after nabbing them from near a farm in the village. A Vaijapur police station official said some fake messages about the presence of a "gang of robbers" were doing rounds on Whatsapp and the incident was the fallout of these rumours.

7. Mob beat transgender to death in Andhra Pradesh
May 28

An unruly mob of at least 500 people beat a 52-year-old transgender to death and severely injured three others over suspicions of them being child-lifters in the old city area of Hyderabad. According to police, several transgenders had come to the city from Mahbubnagar district for the ongoing Ramzan month and were seen begging in the area.

The locals got suspicious of their movements at night. After they failed to give any ¡®convincing¡¯ answers, the mob started thrashing them and the tension escalated quickly. The mob pelted stones at them. A message had gone viral on social media claiming members of the Pardhi gang, who are kidnapping children, have entered Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

The message also read that the gang is killing children to harvest organs.

8. Mob beat youth to death in Karnataka
May 25

A 26-year-old youth was beaten to death by a mob of enraged men who mistook him for a child-lifter. In a horrifying video that emerged on social media, two men are seen dragging a man through the streets of Chamrajpet in Bengaluru while mercilessly beating him up.

The victim, identified as Kaluram Bin Bachanram, was covered in blood and his hands tied by a rope. He was dragged on the road, followed by a mob of local residents who are seen beating him mercilessly with cricket bats and rods.

Fearing that the man wanted to kidnap children, the mon confronted him and started beating him soon after till he was killed.

9. Two killed in Telangana
May 24

Two people were killed in separate incidents in Nizamabad and Yadadri districts of Telangana, after locals thrashed them, suspecting them to be child kidnappers believing rumours on WhatsApp.

The man visiting Nizamabad was found innocent after the police investigation. He was visiting the place to meet a relative. However, when he failed to answer the question put up by mob, he was beaten to death.

10. Two killed in a day in Tamil Nadu
May 10

Fake messages circulating on WhatsApp, asking people not to trust immigrants as they are a part of child trafficking group, led to paranoia in Tamil Nadu and claimed lives of two innocent people in less than 24 hours.

Mob beat a man to death and hung him from a bridge in Pulicat on suspicion that he was a child trafficker.

Also read: Another State Another Lynching! Woman Killed In Gujarat By Mob On Suspicion Of Child Lifting

In yet another case, a 60-year-old woman identified as Rukamani, was lynched by a group of villagers Tiruvannamalai district. Four of her relatives suffered injuries and are undergoing treatment at a hospital.

11. WhatsApp has become an uncontrollable killer

WhatsApp, a popular messaging platform that is set to have 450 million users by 2020 in India, has, unfortunately, become a propaganda machine leading to lynching and assaults. Currently, WhatsApp has 200 million active users in India and has comfortably become a fertile ground for rumour mongering and dissemination of fake news.

Representational Image

Given its penetration in the country, WhatsApp has become a cheap medium to propagate hate. The villagers in most parts of the country, who are unaware of the concept of fake news, buy such propaganda with both hands and are easily induced to commit the crime. They are made to believe that every message that circulates on WhatsApp is true and must be addressed.

Law enforcement officials say that they are struggling to combat the spreading of fake news on the popular platform, especially the messages that preach communal hatred and encourage violence.

Amidst the growing outcry and General Elections due next year, WhatsApp said this month that it has given greater control to administrators over membership in the group. The group messaging option is one of the easiest ways to spread hoax messages quickly.