Mumbai: Even before the State could get over the Dhule lynching, a fresh case of mob fury was reported in Malegaon on Monday, when four people were badly beaten up on suspicion of being child-lifters. Their crime: they were poor, strangers in the area and escorting them was a two-year-old child, the offspring of two of them. This is the second such incident in 24 hours.
They were identified as Gajanan Sahebrao Gire, his wife Sindhubai, their two-year-old child, Sindhubai’s sister Anusaya and another relative Yogesh – all hailing from Parbhani district; they were supposedly begging for money in Malegaon’s Ali Akbar Road area to pay for their return fare. The crowd, suspecting that they were child lifters, swooped down on them. In a bid to escape the wrath of the mob, the five took shelter in a nearby building. The police rushed to the spot but faced the fury of the mob which began pelting stones, damaging a police vehicle in the process. It was with great effort that the police was able to pacify the restive mob, said Harssh Poddar, IGP, Nashik Range.
FLASHBACK: In a separate incident, on Sunday, two persons on a motor bike forced a 12-year-old boy, Ismail Shaikh, to sniff something while he was returning home from Madarssa at around 9 pm. The incident took place near Ali Akber hospital in Gandhi Nagar. However, 12-year-old Ismail managed to escape and took help from another biker who dropped him home.
He narrated the incident to his parents, who recounted the same to others. It was this incident that became a trigger for the attack on the four innocents from Parbhani. But that is what street justice is all about – it looks for soft targets. No arrests have yet been made in the case and further investigations are on.