DHULE: The key accused in the mob attack driven by WhatsApp messages in Maharashtra's Dhule - in which five men were killed on July 1 - has been arrested. So far, 26 people have been arrested in the case. The police said the men were attacked because of rumours that were doing the rounds on WhatsApp about the presence of people in the area who kidnapped children for their organs.
The attack had started after one of the men tried to speak to a six-year-old girl. The residents of Kakar Pada village had pounced on the men, threw stones at them and thrashed them with sticks and chappals.
Soon, a crowd of 3000 had gathered from neighbouring villages. Over-riding the requests of a section of locals to hand over the men to the police, they thrashed them relentlessly. By the time the police reached, all five were dead. The videos that were being circulated on WhatsApp were fake - one of them was a five-year-old video from Syria that had photographs of children who died in a nerve gas attack.