POLICE in India on Tuesday (29) urged the public against believing rumours on social media after a sixth person falsely accused of being a child trafficker was killed by an angry mob.
A transgender woman was lynched and three others seriously injured in Hyderabad city last weekend by a crowd that linked them to a child exploitation ring that police say does not exist.
The 52-year-old’s murder was the sixth in May in southern India that was prompted by false and persistent rumours on social media about a child kidnapping gang, police said.
A 42-year-old man was beaten to death last week in Nizamabad district, about 160 km (100 miles) from Hyderabad, after a mob claimed he was a child kidnapper.
“There are no kidnapping gangs in Hyderabad,” the city’s police commissioner Anjani Kumar said on Tuesday. “We warn (the) public... (against) harming anyone based on rumours on social media.”
Dozens of police officers and locals marched through the southern city on Monday (28) evening with loudspeakers urging people not to take the law into their own hands.
Police arrested 35 people in connection with the beating of the transgender woman last Saturday (26). She died in hospital the next day.
Authorities have issued warnings in Telangana – where the attack occurred – and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu states where vigilantes have murdered four others this month over the same rumour.
Prof Nishan Canagarajah
Professor Meena Upadhyaya
