A look at the headlines right now: Karnataka Police arrest around 30 for lynching man, including WhatsApp group owner: A mob had killed a man and injured three of his friends on Friday on the suspicion that they were child-lifters. Senior advocate allegedly rapes lawyer in Delhi’s Saket court complex, arrested: The Saket Bar Association suspended the accused’s membership after the incident. ‘Chief minister’s post is not bed of roses,’ says HD Kumaraswamy on coalition government in Karnataka: Kumaraswamy said he was not happy being the chief minister, and added that he will resign within a few hours if the pressure gets to him. Previous governments left development projects incomplete, Narendra Modi says in Uttar Pradesh: Modi inaugurated the Bansagar canal project and laid the foundation stone for a medical college in Mirzapur on Sunday. Congress attacks PM for ‘party of Muslim men’ remark, says Modi is spreading poison of hatred and division: Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala claimed the prime minister was blinded by his desire to take revenge on Rahul Gandhi. Two BSF jawans killed, one injured in gunfight with alleged Naxalites: The two deceased constables were identified as Lokender Singh and Mukdhiyar Singh, from Rajasthan and Punjab. Transgender people to move SC seeking inclusion of names in the Assam National Register of Citizens: The final draft is expected to be published by July 30. Amit Shah did not make any statement on construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, says BJP: A senior BJP leader had quoted Shah as saying at an event in Hyderabad that the temple will be built before the upcoming General Elections. Gujarat Police put up notice outside house of woman who accused BJP leader of rape, reveal her name: The Surat police claimed they pasted the notice only after they failed to locate the woman despite several attempts. Nearly 3,600 people died due to potholes in 2017, Uttar Pradesh tops list with 987 deaths: In contrast, terror activities in India killed 803 people in 2017.<doc-sep>Two individuals, a Whatsapp admin and a member who posted an alert about alleged child lifters in Karnataka have been arrested, reported Zee Media. The rumours had led to the death of an individual and left two others severely injured on Friday. This comes at a time when rumours about child lifting have led to numerous lynching incidents across the country. The incident occurred on Friday in Murki village of Bidar District. Three people from Hyderabad were visiting their friend Basheer in Murki village in a car. After the rendezvous, when the three of them were ready to leave, one of the guests distributed chocolates that he had brought from Qatar, to children. The villagers around mistook them for child snatchers and sent an alert on the village’s Whatsapp group. After that villagers gathered, an argument started which progressed to full-blown scuffle. Maha Mob Lynching: Three circulated Whatsapp videos, manipulated to create panic says Police In order to escape the wrath of the villagers, they stayed in their car and tried to escape but accidentally hit a bike en route as the car fell down a pit. Four constables who reached the spot tried to help them but the villagers thwarted their effort. An alert was sent to headquarters and SP of Bidar could only reach the spot in one-and-a-half hour. Police had to resort to lathi charge to disperse the crowd. By that time, one of the victims had succumbed to his injuries and the two others were severely injured. The police have registered a case against the admin of the village Whatsapp group and the person who had sent the message. How Whatsapp lynchings are becoming mainstream Jatin Das, a labourer, was beaten to death by an angry crowd at a wedding venue in Assam for allegedly demanding that revellers stop bursting firecrackers, laying bare once again the veneer of tolerance that gives way only too easily to extreme rage and aggression. The 35-year-old labourer's tragic death this week is only the latest in a series of lynchings that have shocked India, and forced experts to introspect on collective anger that kills and the why and how of public violence. According to reports, at least 20 people were killed in 14 separate incidents between May and July 2018 in various parts of India. Though the National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB) does not specifically track lynchings, the incidence of mob killings and vigilantism has been on the rise. The killing of Das, who wanted the fireworks be stopped because he had been hit by a splinter, is one end of the lynching spectrum. If his ask triggered irrational fury, the other cases are fuelled by righteousness with mobs believing they were doing the good thing. Some of the victims were believed to be beef eaters or indulging in cow slaughter, others were thought to be kidney smugglers, and in many cases the victims were suspected to be child abductors. The reasons for this vigilante justice were varied but the root cause was often the same -- suspicion based on rumours fanned by messages on social media platforms like WhatsApp. According to Mumbai-based psychologist Harish Shetty. India is caught in a "state of post-disaster syndrome", contributing significantly towards the making of an angst driven "fickle" population which can be easily instigated. "One needs to understand that something or the other is always happening in this country...children are being stolen... suicides and murders are happening. All of this leaves people in a state of hyper-arousal and a small trigger can channel their frustration," he said. In Dhule in Maharashtra, where five people were killed on July 1, violence in the predominantly adivasi region was triggered following rumours of child kidnappers on WhatsApp. "Rumours of child kidnappers were doing rounds on Whatsapp, and people became suspicious of the victims who belonged to the nomadic Gosavi community due to their alien attire and language," Superintendent of Police M Ramkumar told PTI. A police team of "eight people", heavily outnumbered by the mob, reached the spot within 40 minutes, only to find that the victims had already succumbed to the attacks. The deaths bring to light the horrors of mob fury when a group of people, sometimes 50 and sometimes as many as 3,500 like in Dhule, decide to take law in their hands and kill somebody. Last month, the deaths of 29-year-old Nilotpal Das and 30-year-old Abhijeet Nath in Assam's Karbi Anglong district shook the country. The two were beaten to death by over 500 angry people, again on the suspicion of being child abductors. "It is an uncivilised notion of justice," said city-based lawyer Kirti Singh. Equating the act of lynching with a kangaroo court where "the mob seems to be doing what it thinks is right", she said people build up the fury on "fake news". She rued the absolute lack of political will to put an end to these "rumours" and blamed the absence of a policy of "zero-tolerance" towards the heinous crime for the lives lost. "Lynching is illegal. It is brutal murder. The ruling dispensation needs to tell people they cannot take the law in their hands. There should be widespread condemnation of such actions. They should set an example by talking extensively about its horrors," the lawyer said. Singh also stressed on the need for police to act immediately and efficiently to stop incidents of violence from escalating, particularly by getting more forces. Agreeing with her, Shetty said, "The police needs to be 10 steps ahead of the rumours." Putting a check on the anti-social elements spreading fake news, effectively communicating with the general public and making them aware about marginalised communities are some of key steps the police must keep in mind, Shetty said. Cyber law expert Pawan Duggal suggested data localisation to supervise the disemmination of content on Whatsapp and similar platforms. According to him, having servers of Whatsapp and Twitter in India will help bring the data that needs to be controlled within the physical boundary of India, thereby bringing it within the purview of Indian law. "This could have a substantial impact on reducing the dissemination of fake news," Duggal said. In 2015, the lynching of Mohammed Akhlaq following rumours that he was storing beef in his home in Dadri village shocked the nation and prompted a nationwide debate. Three years later, the cases continue to pile up but the outrage seems to have dulled, prompting the question -- is lynching the new normal? With inputs from PTI<doc-sep>Reuters Police in India have arrested more than two dozen men who were part of a mob that lynched a 32-year-old man after rumours spread over WhatsApp that he was a child-kidnapper, police said on 15 July. The killing of Mohammed Azam, who police said was a call center employee, in Karnataka on 13 July, was the latest in a series of assaults in India triggered by false messages about child abductors spread through Facebook-owned WhatsApp. At least three people have been killed and more than a dozen assaulted over such rumours this year, according to media reports. Dileep Sagar, a police inspector in Karnataka, said a mob of at least 50 people attacked Azam and a relative after they were spotted offering chocolates to children in a remote village. India is WhatsApp’s biggest market, with more than 200 million users. The Information Technology ministry wrote to WhatsApp this month asking it to take measures to curb the spread of such fake messages. WhatsApp put out advertisements in newspapers last week announcing an “education campaign” on how to spot fake news, adding it would also start labelling forwarded messages. A spokeswoman for the company contacted on 15 July declined to make an immediate comment. The inspector, Sagar, said at least 10 police officers, including him, were injured as they tried to control the attackers. Azam’s relative was injured. Police have also arrested the administrator of a WhatsApp group on which the false messages were spread.<doc-sep>
The police have arrested around 30 people in connection with the lynching of a man in Karnataka’s Bidar district on the suspicion that he was a child-lifter, PTI reported on Sunday. A mob killed the man and injured three of his friends on Friday in Aurad taluka’s Murki village. Those arrested included the administrator of a WhatsApp group that spread rumours about a child-lifting gang, and a person who shot pictures of the attack and circulated it, unidentified police officials said. The police arrested the attackers based on a video clip of the incident, Superintendent of Police D Devraj told the Hindustan Times. Mohammed Azam, Talha Ismail and Mohammed Salman – all from Hyderabad – were travelling with their friend Mohammed Bashir to his home in Handikera village. When they stopped for a break in Balkut Tanda, Ismail, who had recently returned from Qatar, reportedly offered chocolates to schoolchildren. The residents allegedly thought that they were child abductors and began assaulting them. The four men managed to escape in their car but residents of the area called their friends in nearby Murki village and asked them to stop the car. The villagers blocked the road with a fallen tree, dragged Azam out of the car and hit him with stones and sticks. He died on the spot. Soon after, the police arrived at the spot to contain the mob. They rescued Ismail and Salman and admitted them to a hospital in Bidar. The duo were shifted to a facility in Hyderabad on Saturday. At least 10 police officials were also injured, police inspector Dileep Sagar told Reuters. Lynching incidents on similar suspicions, often based on social media rumours, have been reported from several states over the last few weeks. The police across the country have started outreach units to quell fake news. Messaging application WhatsApp said on Tuesday it has updated its service to label forwarded messages. The company took action after the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology asked it on July 4 to initiate measures to prevent the spread of “explosive messages” and said it would be held accountable and responsible for fake news being spread through its platform.