West Bengal: 4 women beaten up, disrobed by mob on suspicion of being child-lifters

This is the fourth incident of mob attack in the district in a month, and the second one in the same block within a week.

File photo

Jalpaiguri: Even as the Centre mulls bringing in amendments in the Indian Penal Code to check mob lynching, another such incident was reported from West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district on Monday.

Four women were allegedly assaulted by a mob on suspicion of being child-lifters at Dawkimari village in Dhupguri block, police said. Out of the four, two were also disrobed by the crowd.

The women, aged between 20 and 50 years, were not locals. 

This is the fourth incident of mob attack in the district, and the second one in the same Dhupguri block.

Last week, a mentally deranged woman was beaten up in the same block of the district on suspicion of being a child-lifter.

One woman was reportedly looking for a relative, another visiting a relative, while the third woman is a door-to-door clothes seller and the fourth one came to visit a neighbourhood bank, the police told PTI.

Suspecting them to be child-lifters, the mob then allegedly assaulted the four women and even disrobed the two of them, said Amitabha Maity, Jalpaiguri Superintendent of Police.

The women were later rescued by cops and taken to a nearby primary health centre, where their condition was stated to be stable, he added.

Earlier this month, several people were injured at the Kranti area of Mal block in the district in stone-pelting following rumours that child-lifters were roaming in the area.

A few days later a young man was allegedly assaulted at Balapara in Sadar block on suspicion of being a child-lifter, police added.

Maity said that though no arrests were made so far in connection with today's incident, several persons were booked in the earlier incidents.

"We are creating awareness on this through the social media and public media like announcements over mikes. People should contact the police on the helpline if they find someone suspicious, but not take law into their own hands," he said.

With increasing incidents of lynching and mob violence from across the country in the recent past, the Supreme Court had last week asked Parliament to consider bringing in a law to prevent these.

Following this, the Centre has decided to set up a high-level committee headed by Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba to look into new laws to check lynching and mob violence incidents.