A day after a man was lynched and six were injured by villagers on suspicion of being "child-lifters" in Madhya Pradesh, the DGP on Thursday said while the police cannot shirk their responsibility, people should have also tried to stop the violent mob.
DGP V K Singh condemned the gruesome incident and said instead of filming the act on their cellphones, local people should have intervened to stop the attack.
A 35-year-old man was lynched while six of his friends were seriously injured on Wednesday when a group of villagers attacked them amid rumours that a child-lifter gang was on the prowl in Baroli village in Dhar district.
All of them were farmers and had gone to the village apparently to recover money given to local farm labourers by one of them.
The director general of police's statement came after BJP vice-president and former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan took to Twitter to condemn the incident, alleging the police had failed to prevent the attack despite being informed about the visit of the victims to the village.
Along with his tweet, Chouhan posted a video of the incident that showed people filming the mob violence on their mobile phones.
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"The incident was quite saddening and unfortunate. The police will initiate necessary measures (to prevent such incidents). But there is also an urgent need to seriously look at the society's mentality," the DGP told reporters.
Singh said the people who were around should have stopped the mob instead of filming the incident on their cellphones.
"The police can't shirk their responsibility, though they have their limitations," the state police chief added.
Three persons who were part of the mob have been arrested, while the inspector in-charge of the Manawar police station, under whose jurisdiction the incident took place, a sub-inspector and three to four other policemen have been suspended, he said.
"Other policemen will face departmental action if it is found that they have shown dereliction in performing their duties," Singh said.
He appealed to people to not participate in mob violence and ignore rumours.
Meanwhile, health minister Tulsi Silawat has announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the family of Ganesh Patel, who died in the attack.
The government will also pay for the medical expenses of the injured who are undergoing treatment, he added.
Chief Minister Kamal Nath has taken cognisance of the incident and a special team has been set up to investigate the matter, the minister said.
The victims, farmers hailing from Indore and Ujjain districts, had gone to Baroli village, around 60 km from Dhar town, to recover money from some local farm labourers when they were attacked by the mob.
The attack took place after farm labourers spread rumours that the seven men were child-lifters to avoid returning the money they had taken as advance from one of the victims, police have said.