The indent happened in Karnataka's Mandya district (Representational)
A man, who had come to meet his son in Karnataka's Mandya district, was thrashed by a mob over suspicion of being a child kidnapper.
The victim, who was a divorcee, had come to meet his son and asked him to come with him. As his child refused to accompany him, people mistook him for a child kidnapper and thrashed him.
More than 20 people have been killed across India over fake WhatsApp rumours of being child kidnappers. The last such incident took place in Karntaka's Bidar, where a techie was beaten to death. The WhatsApp videos that had triggered the attack were fake - one of them was a five-year-old video from Syria that had photographs of children who died in a nerve gas attack.
Amid increasing incidents of mob lynchings, the Supreme Court had asked the legislature to consider enacting a new penal provision to deal with mob violence and provide deterrent punishment to offenders.
Whille condemning the mob killings, Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said it's not that the lynchings haven't happened in the past. "However, whoever is killed, it is a worry for all governments," Mr Singh said in the parliament.
The home minister reiterated that it's for the state governments to ensure such incidents don't happen and added, "Despite law and order being a state subject, the centre cannot keep quiet. The centre has issued advisories."
(With ANI inputs)