Mob lynches suspected child lifter near Hosur

Police are yet identity the youth, who appears to be aged around 25. The incident happened at Onnalvadi, about 15 km from Hosur.

When police rushed to the spot, on receiving information, the youth had already fallen unconsciousness and was found with bloodstains all over his person. “Villagers, who saw three north Indian youth wandering in their neighbourhood, had questioned them. As they did not understand Tamil, the three men attempted to move away. The villagers, suspecting them to be child lifters, assaulted them,” police said.

“While two men managed to escape, the villagers caught hold of one person, took him to a ground nearby where they tied his hands, kicked and assaulted him with wooden logs until he fell unconscious,” police said.

As the youth was found breathing, the Hosur Town police rushed him to the Hosur Government Hospital. However, he died without responding to treatment.

Police believe that the youth, who was wearing blue trousers and red shirt, to be a migrant worker. Police said they do not know why the villagers suspected him to be a child lifter. Villagers, however, told police that they were vigilant after messages spread on social media on the presence of child lifters in the neighbourhood.

Earlier in May, a mob beat to death a man near Pulicat in Chennai, while a group of people in Tiruvannamalai district assaulted to death a 65-year-old woman from Chennai. In both incidents, the victims were assumed to be child lifters.