5 'child lifters' lynched in Dhule: Victims' families refuse to accept bodies; Devendra Fadnavis promises Rs 5 lakh compensation

Families of the five persons killed in a horrifying mob attack in Maharashtra’s Dhule district refused to accept the victims’ bodies on Monday. The five were lynched after being suspected of being part of a gang of ‘child lifters’ on Sunday.

Seeking justice and compensation, the distraught families of the victims staged a ‘sit-in’ protest on Monday. They demanded police action against the culprits involved in the lynching and suitable compensation, NDTV reported.

The Maharashtra Police, meanwhile, detained 23 people in connection with the lynching on Monday. All 23 belonged to Rainpada village and were aged between 20 and 30 years,  The Indian Express  reported.

Dhule Superintendent of Police M Ramkumar said: “We have also identified some more accused in this case. Five teams have been formed to identify the accused.”

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis called the incident “unfortunate” . Speaking to ANI, he said: “We have already begun an investigation in the matter. The state government has decided to give Rs 5 lakh as compensation to the victims’ families”.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra rural development minister Deepak Kesarkar had said earlier that strong action will be taken against the accused.

Members of the Nath Gosavi community also staged a protest outside the Satara district collectorate, demanding justice for the victims and punishment to the perpetrators, the report added.

On Sunday, the five men, along with a few others, were seen getting down from a state transport bus in the tribal Rainpada hamlet, police said. When one of them apparently tried to speak to a girl child, villagers, who had gathered for the weekly Sunday bazaar, pounced on them.  According to the police, WhatsApp rumours of a gang of child kidnappers had been doing the rounds in the village.

According to a report in The Times of India , the villagers asked the five men about their whereabouts in the local dialect, but since there was a language problem, they were unable to satisfy the villagers’ doubts. This sparked an altercation between them and the mob took control of the five, took them to the gram panchayat office and beat them with stones, logs etc. All five died on the spot.

As per Hindustan Times , 14 lives have been claimed across the country in  mob lynchings based on social media rumours  across the country since 20 May. Lynchings have been reported from states such as Tripura, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Assam, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha in the past two months, the report said.