Two women thrashed on suspicion of being child lifters in Hooghly, 11 held

Eleven persons were arrested on Sunday in connection with the incident in which a school teacher and his mother were beaten up on mere suspicion of being child lifters. The incident took place at Balagarh in Hooghly.

Police had initiated raids at different places soon after the incident on Saturday night and detained four persons. On Sunday, all four of them were arrested and police came to know about seven others who were involved in the incident. Police picked up all seven of them on Sunday morning and arrested them after interrogation.

A police officer said Aparna Ghosh, a teacher of Agarpara High School went to a relative's house at Balagarh in Hooghly along with her mother Ranjubala on Saturday. The incident took place when they were returning from the relative's house in a car.

Some villagers stopped the car and asked the driver to open the gate. But the driver refused to follow their instruction apprehending that they might have intention to take away valuables from them. It turned the situation worse as the villagers started considering them to be child lifters.

They started beating up the driver first. The school teacher and her mother tried to stop them from beating up the driver but the villagers also started beating up the women.

Police, somehow, received the information and went to the spot. They rescued the women and the driver and took them to Jirat Rural Hospital. Later, the women were shifted to a private hospital in Kalyani.

Police said that there had been a rumour in certain areas including Balagarh, Pandua, Kalyani and Chakdah in Hooghly and Nadia district that some child lifters were roaming around the places. The rumours were being spread through social media and it resulting to deterioration of law and order situation.