Jharkhand Lynching case: Cars, police jeeps were targeted and set on fire by villagers.

In Jharkhand, six people were beaten to death yesterday by mobs amid rumours of child stealing gangs. Policemen who tried to stop the attack were also attacked and were powerless to stop the raging crowds.In an incident in east Singbhum district, three men, Vikas Kumar Verma, Gautam Kumar verna and Gangesh Gupta, were dragged out of a house and beaten to death and a woman was brutally assaulted as villagers accused them of kidnapping children.The police say rumours had been swirling in the region, as well as the neighbouring Saraikela district, where three cattle traders, Nayeem, Seraj Khan and Sajju, were thrashed to death by a mob.When the police reached the villages in both cases, they were completely outnumbered by the mobs. Villagers allegedly turned on the policemen and attacked them, leaving some of them injured.

Allegations of child kidnapping were circling through five or six villages in the region, said the police.Cars and police jeeps were also targeted and set on fire by the villagers.