In a shocking incident from West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, a mentally challenged woman was lynched on suspicions of child trafficking. The incident comes in the wake of a series of incidents of mob lynching which has claimed many lives.
According to Hindustan Times report, the victim, 42-year-old Otera Bibi, had been undergoing psychiatric treatment for over a year. She was a resident of Mithipur-Pananagar village, located about seven km from Sekendra. The incident took place in broad daylight when a villager noticed Otera entering the house of one Dilip Ghosh with something in her hand. Word spread that the woman had come bearing chloroform to abduct Khushi, Ghosh’s minor daughter. A mob rushed into the house and caught her “red-handed”.
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“The villagers started beating the woman mercilessly. She was trying to say something, but we couldn’t understand it. In fact, her incoherent speech fuelled suspicions that she was a trafficker from Bangladesh. Some youngsters ripped off the woman’s clothes and partly tonsured her. Then they tied her to a tractor and beat her for three hours,” a local resident said.
However, police tried to intervene, they were not allowed. By the time more force was deployed, Otera succumbed to her injuries.
Notably, Police have dismissed the villagers’ claims that Otera was a child-trafficker.
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