AHMEDABAD: A mob of around 1000 people lost their sanity and lynched a 45-year-old
woman beggar suspecting her to be a child abductor in Vadaj area of the city on Tuesday evening.
The deceased woman identified as
Shantadevi Nath from
Meldi Mata Na Chhapra in Sardarnagar area of the city went for begging at Vadaj area along with three other women when the public suspected them as child-lifters and attacked them with sticks, said police.
Police Inspector J A Rathwa of Vadaj police station said that Nath along with her other community members were living in Sardarnagar for around 15 years and they were mainly depending upon begging.
"On Tuesday evening, she went to Vadaj where in a rumour was on rife that they were about to lift kids from the area. Suddenly five to six people rushed to them when they were going to sit in an auto-rickshaw and started heated arguments with them. Gradually few more people rushed there and pulled them out of the rickshaw and started thrashing them," said police sources.
"In a spur of moment, a crowd of around 500 to 700 surrounded the four women beggars and started raining blows and punches on them. Some of them even pulled their hairs and thrashed them. Soon after that, some of the people rushed there with sticks and started beating the four woman which resulted into severe injuries to Shantadevi while three others also suffered injuries in the incident," added soruces.
Rathwa said that some of the cops deployed at a nearby traffic signal rushed to rescue them but they had already suffered major injuries by then. An ambulance was called then and the injured woman were sent to civil hospital in
Asarwa area of the city. Shantadevi, who had gone unconscious after the bashing, was declared dead at the hospital.
Representative image.