'WhatsApp video wrongly identifying techie as child lifter led

A WhatsApp video wrongly identifying Hyderabad techie Mohammad Azam Usmansab as a child lifter led to his lynching near Bidar on July 13, police said today.

The video, which originated from here, had a message, saying that three children were kidnapped by strangers who lured them into accepting chocolates, biscuits and other toys.

It also said that a gang of 400 kidnappers have come to Bengaluru for child trafficking.

A police officer, requesting anonymity, said the video, showing some persons allegedly confessing to the kidnapping of children, was the reason behind the lynching of the techie.

A total of 30 persons, including the administrator of a WhatsApp group that spread the rumours and the person who shot the pictures of the attack and circulated it, have been arrested.

The officer said a special awareness drive has been launched in the district asking people not to rely on WhatsApp forwards and take the law into their hands, merely on suspicion of somebody being a child-trafficker.

Usmansab and his three friends had come to visit their friend Mohammed Bashir Afroz at Handikera village in Bidar yesterday