The relatives of five persons who were lynched by Rainpada villagers in Dhule district of Maharashtra on Sunday over suspicion that they were part of a gang of 'child lifters', have refused to take dead bodies of the victims.
They have demanded that all villagers involved in the incident should be arrested and adequate compensations be given to the deceased family members.
The victims are from Solapur district of the state, nearly 600 km from Dhule.
The dead bodies of those lynched are lying in the civil hospital in Dhule district, and their relatives and community leaders from Solapur are also likely to visit Rainpada.
“We are camping in this area for last three months and earning our livelihood by telling the fortune and begging. Our people demanded mercy still they were beaten to death. We demand the high-level inquiry in this entire incident,” said a relative of one of the victims.
Meanwhile, police have arrested 23 accused in the case. “We have formed various teams who are looking for more accused. We have also collected videos and photographs of the people who were involved,” said S Ramkumar, Dhule Superintendent of Police.
He also expressed confidence that all culprits will be arrested.
Several male villagers are on the run after police made arrests in the case. "The entire Reinpada wore deserted look because all males from the village have run away and they are hiding in nearby forest area. "Only women and children are left in this village. They have realised their mistake," said police on the condition of anonymity
"Initially, they locked all five victims in the grampanchayat office. Later, some villagers broke the door and window and lynched them. Two nomad people were gasping for life, so the villagers again went back and beat and killed them mercilessly,” he added.
Ramkumar also confirmed that the nomad could not able to communicate with the villagers' local language - Ahirani. “The language was the main issue. The villagers language was Ahirani-the local dialect while these nomad spoke Marathi. The villagers thought that these people are from different locations and had come to their place to kidnap their children only,” Ramkumar said.
Narrating this incident; local journalist Rajendra Khairnar told DNA that these fortune tellers cum beggars roam the villages in search of livelihood. “Sunday was weekly market day. And these nomad had come to Reinpada. While parking their vehicle, one village girl thrown the stone in the vehicle. One of the deceased shouted and warned the girl. Despite this, the girl continue to throw the stone and stick. So one of the deceased shouted again and to shoo away he ran after the girl. The same girl shouted in the crowded market chor chor – thief thief. By hearing her aloud screaming , the crowd gathered and took hold of these nomad and started heating them badly. By seeing them other people also joined them and murdered them after suspecting them as child lifters,” said Khairnar.
From last one month, the entire social media was flooded with the news of a gang of child abductors and kidney like organ removers and sellers.
“Last week, four people were badly beaten on suspicion of being child lifters. Fortunately, they ran away and escaped but their vehicles were burned. A few days ago, in one of the villages of Dhule district, someone spread the rumour that six people had come in their village to kidnap children. One of villager told the villagers that he personally saw them hiding in crops. The villagers did not sleep the entire night. They searched each and every farm of their village and nearby with torches. They spent a sleepless night in fear of child lifters hiding in their area,” said Sharad Patil, former Shiv Sena MLA from Dhule.
