A 55-year-old woman was beaten to death by a group of villagers at Athimoor village in Polur taluk in Tiruvannamalai after they mistook her and four others for child kidnappers on Wednesday. The five persons had travelled to the village in search of their ‘ kuladeivam’ (family deity) temple when the incident happened.
R. Ponni, Superintendent of Police, Tiruvannamalai, said that Rukmani, a resident of Old Pallavaram in Chennai, succumbed to the injuries on the spot, while four others — Chandrasekharan, 34; Mohankumar 34; Venkatesan, 51; and Gajendran car driver, are undergoing treatment for injuries. Police attached to the Polur station said Chandrasekharan and Mohankumar – both native of Sathanur in Tiruvannamalai district — had arrived from Malaysia on May 3. They were relatives of Rukmani. At 5 p.m. on Tuesday, they left Chennai in a car and halted at Sathanur for the night.
“They were visiting their ‘ kuladeivam ’ temple in the village. They reached Athimoor via Jamunamarathur in a car when rumours spread among the villagers that they were child kidnappers. A mob started to attack them,” Ms. Ponni said.
Explaining what happened before the attack, a policeman said the visitors were searching for their ‘kuladeivam ’ temple at Athimoor on Wednesday morning.
“They did not know the way as they had last visited the place when they were young. They lost the way and went for another 3 km. They inquired with the villagers, who told them to turn around and go back the same way. It was then that Rukmani spotted two children playing in the area and offered them chocolates from Malaysia. They left the spot when the children’s grandmother raised an alarm that a gang had come to kidnap the children,” he said.
Unaware of what had happened, the five persons continued their travel when villagers, on receiving information from others, gathered and stopped their vehicle at Athimoor. They attacked the five persons and damaged the vehicle.
Rukmani succumbed to injuries, while the four others were rushed to the Government Tiruvannamalai Medical College and Hospital. Later, Gajendran was shifted to a private medical college in Vellore, while Chandrasekharan, Mohankumar and Venkatesan have been referred to the Government Vellore Medical College Hospital at Adukkamparai.
Police said they have obtained videos and photographs of the lynching incident. “We are looking at these videos and photographs to nab the accused,” Ms. Ponni said.
On April 29, a man aged about 30 years was beaten to death by a group of residents of Parasuramapatti in Gudiyatham Town in Vellore after they mistook him for a robber.
Ms. Ponni said this lynching incident happened despite the police creating awareness among villagers through public addressing system and distributing pamphlets to not to spread or believe rumours.
