Woman tied to pole, beaten by mob on suspicion of child-lifter, 2 arrested

The West Bengal police have arrested two people for allegedly tying a woman to a pole and beating her up with sticks in a village in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas, officials said on Wednesday. The action came after a video of the incident surfaced on social media.

Police said that the video was shot on Sunday at Kochukhali, a remote village in the Sunderban. The victim, a woman with mental illnesses, was tied to a pole and beaten up with sticks by villagers on the suspicion that she was a child-lifter.

“We have arrested two persons based on a first information report (FIR) after the video surfaced on social media,” said an officer of Gosaba police station. “After spotting her roaming in the village for two to three days and often approaching children, a group of villagers intercepted her and started questioning her. She couldn’t reply to their questions, and it triggered suspicion among locals that she was a child-lifter,” the officer said.

“They tied her to a pole and started beating her. In the video a man could be seen beating her with a stick in front of village women,” said an officer. She was finally released and was taken to a ferry ghat, from where she boarded a boat and left.