Two women were thrashed by locals in south-east Delhi’s Okhla Industrial Area on suspicion of kidnapping a 2-year-old child on Friday afternoon, the police said on Saturday.
Women arrested
Rehana and Sakina were arrested and subsequently released on bail, they said.
The boy, Ritesh who resides with his parents in Sanjay Colony, was playing on the street at that time of the incident.
His mother Rinku Devi was at their residence and father Munna, a labourer, was at work. Rinku allegedly told the police that the two women came to the spot and held Ritesh’s hand.
She said she also saw the women take him along with them when she started shouting, the police said.
Following this, the neighbours immediately gathered at the spot and nabbed the duo.
They then started thrashing the women thinking they were kidnappers.
The locals then handed over the boy to his mother and called the police.
On reaching the spot, the officers rescued the woman from the mob and took them to the police station.
Based on the mother’s complaint, a case under Sections 363 (punishment for kidnapping) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC.
During interrogation, the women from jhuggis in Badarpur told the police that they are beggars and did not touch the child.
The video of the incident, which went viral on social media, shows one of the women holding a baby while the other was pleading to the mob.
This is the second such incident reported in the Capital.
Similar incident
On August 27, a 25-year-old pregnant and hearing and speech impaired woman was beaten up by a mob in north-east Delhi’s Harsh Vihar on suspicion of kidnapping a child.
