KalingaTV News Network

Balangir: A mentally challenged youth was brutally thrashed by a local mob at Badapada in Patanagarh area of the district in Odisha last night, police said.

The identification of the victim was not established yet, Patnagarh police added.

According to reports, the villagers spotted the youth in the village last night and suspected him to be a member of child-lifting racket. Being a mentally challenged person, the youth couldn’t provide satisfactory responses to the villagers, leading the mob to attack him.

The youth got severe head injury during the mob attack, sources said.

However, the situation calmed down after police reached the spot and rescued the youth. The victim was immediately sent to a local hospital.

Allegations of child theft are circling through social media in various parts of the state.

On May 29, the Odisha police has issued an advisory in connection to child theft rumours urging people not to take the law into their hands by attacking unknown persons suspecting them to be of child-lifting gangs.