Victim community a peaceful tribe: Police

Dhule (Maha): The nomadic Nath Gosavi community, whose five members were lynched here on suspicion of child-lifting, is a peaceful tribe with no criminal record, according to a senior official of the Maharashtra Police.

The community members generally travel from place to place in search of work and food and make ends meet by begging and performing acrobatics.

"These people talk sweetly and respectfully to everyone as they need favours," Dhule's Superintendent of Police M Ramkumar said here.

He is puzzled why the five community members were attacked and killed by a mob in Dhule's Rainpada village on July 1.

"They keep coming here and the local villagers know it. But why suddenly they came under attack from the mob is not clear, especially when these people (nomads) have never indulged in violence earlier and have no criminal record," Ramkumar said.

The lynching in Rainpada, about 100 km from the Dhule district headquarters, is believed to have been triggered by rumours that the nomads were child-lifters who sold kidneys of their captives. In the videos which went viral, the victims, belonging to the Nath Gosavi community, were seen being thrashed with sticks and chappals and stoned after one of them apparently tried to speak to a six-year-old girl. The nomads generally visit villages on weekly market days, festivals and fairs and set

up make-shift houses outside villages.