Woman ragpicker, suspected to be a child-lifter, gets beaten up at Mallepally

In another incident of mob violence, a woman ragpicker was beaten up by a group of locals in the Mallepally.

The incident took place in Afzal Sagar area on Monday. The woman, Nagamani was suspected to be a child-kidnapper and was interrogated by the residents of the nearby Mangar Basti and later was thrashed when she failed to give satisfactory answers.

However, she was rescued by the police who intervened after learning about the incident. According to the police, the woman was spotted eating chips by herself and the locals, suspicious regarding the social media rumours about child lifters cornered her and demanded to know her whereabouts.

The 19-year-old was then beaten up when her replies failed to satisfy them.

The police shifted her to the Habeeb Nagar police station and conducted inquiries about the background of the rag-picker. She was found to have no connection to any child-lifting gang.

Meanwhile, the police are conducting awareness programmes to caution people against social media rumours.