Two lynched in Aurangabad on suspicion of cattle theft

AURANGABAD: Another incident of lynching allegedly triggered by fake messages in circulation on the social media has come to light, this time from Aurangabad district in Maharashtra, police said on Wednesday. According to police, two men were allegedly beaten to death and seven others were injured, one of them critically, after a mob of villagers attacked them on suspicion of being robbers in Chandgaon village in Vaijapur taluka on June 8.

Police said a mob of at least 1,500 villagers allegedly attacked nine men with wooden sticks after nabbing them from near a farm in the village on morning of last Friday.

A Vaijapur police station official said some fake messages about the presence of a "gang of robbers" were doing rounds on Whatsapp and the incident was fallout of these rumours. "Following the rumours, villagers were maintaining a vigil in night hours," said Assistant Police Inspector Ram Hari Yadav.

The official said police rushed to the spot after they received a call from a villager, informing that they had caught a gang of "robbers".