KALABURAGI (KARNATAKA): A man was beaten to death on Friday evening by an irate mob of villagers from Murki in Karnataka’s Bidar district, about 730km from Bengaluru, on suspicion that he was a child-lifter.Azam, 27, died on the way to hospital. Two of his friends accompanying him were injured when the villagers descended on the trio with sticks and stones.Azam and Salman, both residents of Hyderabad, and Salaham from Qatar had come to their friend Basheer’s house in Handikera village in their car. They were returning to Hyderabad after having lunch at Basheer’s place. At Thoul hamlet, Salaham saw some children playing and offered them chocolates he’d brought from Qatar. The children refused to take the chocolates on seeing they had a different type of wrapper.When Salaham persuaded a girl to take the chocolate, she started crying. The villagers noticed this and started scolding the men. Suddenly, a few villagers started thrashing the three men. Some in the mob recorded this on their mobile phones and sent it to their friends in the next village.The three men managed to escape and fled in their car. But the villagers had alerted residents of the neighbouring Murki village, who blocked the road with logs. While trying to negotiate the blockade, the car rammed into the logs and flipped on it side. The three men were then now at the mercy of the villagers.The residents of Thoul hamlet, who had been following them, joined forces with Murki villagers and started hitting the trio with sticks and stones. Within half an hour, around 2,000 people had gathered around the men.Bidar SP D Devaraju told TOI that police tried to intervene and tried to tell them they were not child-lifters. But the villagers continued thrashing the trio.An inspector and a police constable were also injured in the melee. Police had to resort to lathicharge to bring the situation under control.Azamwas rushed to a hospital in Aurad but died en route. Salman and Salaham were taken to Hyderabad and hospitalised. Devaraju said 30 people from the two villages were arrested. A WhatsApp group administrator, Manoj, in whose group the video went viral, was also arrested. The person who shared the video in the group was also arrested.