Man suspected to be child-lifter beaten to death by mob

A man suspected to be a child- trafficker was lynched by a mob in a crowded area of the city, police said today.

Fourteen people, including four women, were arrested yesterday in this connection, they said.

A mob of 25 people attacked the man at Cottonpet with cricket bats and logs, the police said.

The victim Kaluram of Rajasthan was a tiles-fitter who had come to Bengaluru from Pune a month ago, they said.

Some women residing near Chamarajpet garden suspected Kaluram to be a child-trafficker and chased him.

The bystanders caught and assaulted him, the police said adding he was beaten up with cricket bats and logs.

Following information about a man being lynched, police rushed to the scene and took him to a hospital, but he died on the way.

"There was no basis for suspecting him as a child trafficker. There is a Whatsapp video in circulation portraying the features of a suspected child trafficker," the station house officer of thejurisdictional Chamarajpet police station.

"Relying on it, women targeted him and finally a group ofpeople lynched him," he said.

Meanwhile, residents of a village in Hassan caught a man from Bihar thinking he was a child-lifter and handed him over to the police.

Another similar incident was reported in Raichur district wherea mentally-challenged man was attacked by a group of people who thought he was a child trafficker.

At Andersonpet in Kolar,two men were roughed up by a mob which suspected them to be child-lifters.