A mob killed a mentally ill woman on the suspicion of her being a child abductor in Badgad village, which falls under the Morwa Police Station, in Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh.

Police said the 30-year-old woman was roaming in the village when some people spotted her. They asked her several questions and when she was not able to answer them, the mob started assaulting her, resulting in her death.

“Primary findings suggest that locals killed her presuming her to be child abductor. We have arrested few people and are questioning them,” Riyaz Ahmed, Snigrauli District Superintendent of Police, said.

Body recovered

The mob reportedly dumped her body near a forest nursery and disappeared, he added. The police recovered it on Saturday.

In a similar incident in the district, a forest official was attacked by a mob on the suspicion of being a child kidnapper few days back.

For the last few weeks, social media is rife with rumours and fake news about alleged child kidnappers being active in Singrauli that shares its boundary with Uttar Pradesh.

The Madhya Pradesh police have averted at least four lynchings in the past over a month in Balaghat, Seoni and Chhindwara districts following rumours spread over social media.

Last month incidents

Last month, in Balaghat district, in two separate incidents, two constables of the Rampayali Police Station and two local youths were caught and thrashed by villagers on suspicion of being ''kidney thieves''.

“The mob burnt the motorcycle of the youths, burnt tyres on the road and staged a road blockade demanding immediate release of two youths from police custody,” A. Jaidevan, Superintendent of Police, Balaghat district, said.

Such was the level of fear in these districts that many villagers have stopped going out at night and are confronting outsiders, said a senior police officer.