Police had to resort to lathi charge to disperse an angry mob in Raibag on Wednesday that was protesting the death of a woman in Nandikurli village.
The crowd gathered before the bus-stand and stoned two buses and some shops. They were angered by a rumour that Rehmat Bi Meer Saab Multani, 35, had been killed on Tuesday night, in a fight between her family and workers in a stone crusher unit in Nandikurli village. Rumour had spread that she had been injured in stone pelting when the workers confronted her family over a dispute and that she died later.
Police tried to convince the crowd that she had fallen accidentally, and died due to a possible head injury. When it failed, police had to disperse the crowd by caning.
“Rehmat Bi was among the group of 20 persons who attacked the crusher unit workers with sticks and stones in the compound where workers were staying. She fell when she was coming out of a room inside the crusher unit. We have CCTV footage to prove that her fall was accidental,’’ an investigating officer The Hindu .
Police played the CCTV footage on a computer screen in the Raibag police station to which presspersons and some villagers from Nandikurli were invited.
The group of around 20 people are members of families that live behind the crusher unit. They were angry with the unit owner as he had failed to employ them in the unit. They were also angry as the GESCOM had shifted an electric pole outside the compound. With this, the power supply was cut off to the houses of Multani and others. They believed the crusher unit was responsible for this and entered their premises to “teach a lesson” to the unit’s workers.
Within minutes of the fall, Rehmat Bi was taken to the hospital where she was brought dead. By Wednesday morning, the news spread in Raibag and a mob started throwing stones.
“We have footage of the CCTV. Any person who has doubts about the death can come and watch it in the Raibag police station,’’ SP Sudheer Kumar Reddy said. He has appealed to the people not to believe rumours. He said the situation in Raibag is under control. The woman’s body was handed over to her relatives after post-mortem.
