Jharkhand : At least seven lynched in 24 hours over child-lifting rumours, situation now under control

According to media reports, no fresh incident was reported on Sunday and the situation is now under control.

The curfew imposed in four police station areas has also been lifted.

Two of the 17 people named in the FIR were arrested on Sunday afternoon and a hunt is on for the rest

Though The Hindu and other newspapers have put the death toll at seven, The Indian Express has reported the lynching of nine people, including the ones who had been beaten to death a week ago.

There was tension in Jugsalai area of the industrial city where final rites of two of the victims — Vikash Verma and Gautam Verma — were performed amid  tight security.  The victims, both brothers, were lynched at Nagadih on Thursday allegedly over rumours of child-lifting.

In addition to the deployment of police and Rapid Action Force ( RAF), meetings were organised by community leaders to calm down the situation.

According to reports, seven  people were brutally beaten to death in a span of 24 hours by mobs comprising of over 500 people, mostly tribals, in two incidents in nearby Seraikela-Kharsawan district on Thursday night.

In the first incident, four Muslim cattle traders were thrashed  with sticks and boulders at Rajnagar while three Hindu men – the Vermas and a friend – were lynched at Bagbera.

A week before this, two other people, one of them identified as a tribal man, named Raphael Tudu and the other still unidentified, were lynched by mobs in Jadugora on May 11.

Road blockades were put up in Mango and Dhatkidih in Jamshedpur  demanding immediate arrest of the culprits.

Police have started an investigation to find out the source of the WhatsApp rumours.