Hours after five persons were bludgeoned to death in Dhule district by a mob that suspected them to be child-lifters, a family of five narrowly escaped a similar fate in Nashik district late on Sunday night.
The police said a huge mob, fed on social media rumours about a child lifting gang, came looking for the victims in the Azad Nagar locality of Malegaon. The victims Gajanan Sahebrao Gire, his wife Sindhubai, their two-year-old child, Sindhubai’s sister Anusaya and another relative Yogesh — all hailing from Parbhani district — were apparently asking for money along Malegaon’s Ali Akbar Road area to pay for their return back home.
“Around 11 p.m. , we got a call about some persons being assaulted by a mob on suspicion of being child lifters. The police rushed to the scene and managed to pacify the restive mob,” said Harssh Poddar, IGP, Nashik Range.
However, when the police attempted to take some of them into custody, the crowd turned violent. The mob, which had swelled by then, began hurling stones on the security personnel. “One police vehicle was overturned and the windscreens of some vans were smashed. A reserve team was rushed to the spot and only then did we manage to quell the violence,” said Sub-Inspector Milind Navgire.
He said the police took the family, which had taken shelter in a building along Ali Akbar road, safely to a nearby police station.
Another official from the Malegaon police station said a case under sections 143, 147, 149 and 323 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) had been lodged against unidentified persons at the Azad Nagar police station. No arrests had yet been made.