28 persons arrested were produced before the Aurad judicial magistrate, who remanded them in judicial custody.
BELGAUM — The Bidar police have arrested 28 persons, including the administrator of a WhatsApp group and one of its members, on charges of killing a Hyderabad-based engineer and injuring three others on suspicion of child-lifting, reports The Hindu.
The accused were produced before the Aurad judicial magistrate, who remanded them in judicial custody.
The 28 were part of a mob that attacked the Hyderabad youth who had come to visit a friend in the nearby village of Handikera.
A 32-year-old software engineer from Hyderabad was lynched by a mob on Friday in Karnataka’s Bidar district over WhatsApp-driven rumours about child-lifting. Four others were also attacked by the villagers but the police managed to save them on time. They were seriously injured in the attack.
The victim Mohammad Azam was a computer science engineer working for the Google centre in Gachibowli in Hyderabad.
As many as 32 persons were picked up by the police on Saturday. However, after screening the videos shot at the incident spot by some villagers, the police zeroed in on the 28 persons. A District Armed Reserve police van has been stationed in the village following the violence. However, the situation is normal now, Superintendent of Police D. Devaraja said.
He has appealed to people not to believe rumours on social media.
In case of any alleged violation of any law, people should call the nearest police station or the district control room (Phone number -100), he said.
Also read: GOOGLE ENGINEER LYNCHED, QATARI NATIONAL SERIOUSLY INJURED OVER WHATSAPP RUMORS IN KARNATAKA
The SP has formed a team of Circle Inspector Dilip Sagar and S. Amaresh to investigate the case. According to the police, some pictures and videos shot at Gokul Tanda had led to the panic.
Amar Patil had shot the pictures of the victims distributing chocolates to school children and recorded a video of their car and posted it on a WhatsApp group called Mother Murki. Manoj Biradar is the admin of the group.
They are among the arrested. Both have been remanded in custody.
He is married and has a two-year-old son.
“We are all shocked. What sin had he committed to die on the road, being hit by a mob?’’, said Mohammad Akram, the victim’s brother. The family lives in Errakunta in Hyderabad.
The injured, who are related to Mr. Azam, — Mohammad Salman Alinor, Talha Ismail Qureshi, and Noor Mohammad Sadique — have been admitted to a private hospital in Hyderabad.
This is the latest incident of mob lynching fueled by whatsapp rumors. In the neighboring Maharashtra, at least five people were lynched earlier this month following whatsapp rumors about child-lifting. — Agencies
