Elderly woman thrashed by mob on suspicion of being child lifter
Ghaziabad: Rumours of child lifting are at a rise these days in NCR region with crowd turning violent and thrashing any person whom they suspect to be a child thief. In a recent incident reported from Loni area of Ghaziabad, a 58-year-old woman was thrashed by mob after they suspected her to be a child lifter.
However, police investigations showed that the woman was child's grandmother. Police have warned people not to take law into their hands and assured them that no child lifting gang is active in the area.
According to police, the incident took place on Tuesday afternoon in Loni area of Ghaziabad when the elderly woman had gone to a nearby market along with her four year old grandson. However, a few people spotted them and suspected her to be a child lifter as she had a dark complexion while the child was fairer. She was kicked and punched by the mob and was thrashed badly.
A video of the whole incident also went viral where the woman can be seen crying and requesting people to leave her but the mob kept on thrashing her multiple times.
Neeraj Kumar Jadaun, Superintendent of Police (rural), Ghaziabad said that claims against the woman to be a child-lifter were not true and actions will be taken against those who are seen thrashing the woman in the video.
"Police investigations showed that the woman who has been claimed to be a child-lifter is the grandmother of the child and they were going to a nearby market. The claims were not true and an FIR has been registered against unknown persons under the section of 147, 148 (Rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 325 (Punishment for voluntarily causing grievous hurt), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation) of IPC. We are trying to identify the accused persons through the video and strict actions will be taken against them," said Jadaun.
In another similar incident reported from Tronica city area in Wednesday, a 21-year-old mentally challenged man and a woman were beaten after a few people raised an alarm that both are child lifters. However, police said that both of them didn't even know each other and we're thrashed out of rumours.
"Taking cognisance, we assure people that there are no child lifting gangs active in the area. We insist people that if they find any suspicious person in their area, they must report the matter to police instead of taking law into their hands," added Jadaun.
