KALABURAGI: Villagers of Thoul hamlet and Murki village in Aurad taluk Bidar district , about 730km from Bengaluru, beat a person to death and injured two others with sticks and stones on Friday evening as they suspected them to be child-lifters. Azam , 27, died on the way to hospital in Aurad.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 had their lunch there and were returning to Hyderabad. At Thoul hamlet, Salaham saw children playing around and offered them chocolates brought from Qatar. But the children refused to take them as they saw it had a different type of wrapper.Salaham forced one girl to take the chocolate but she started crying. When villagers noticed this, they started berating the visitors. Some villagers thrashed the three men and some others recorded it on their cellphones and immediately sent it to friends in the next villager. The video clip soon went viral.The three men fled in their car and started driving rashly to get out. The enraged villagers alerted residents of neighbouring Murki village who blocked the road by placing logs on the road.In their hurry, the three men slammed the wooden logs and the car overturned. The three men were again at the mercy of the villagers. Residents of Thoul hamlet, who had been following them, joined forces with Murki villagers and started hammering the trio black & blue with sticks & stones. Within half an hour, around 2,000 people gathered to see the child-lifters.Bidar SP D Devaraju said police tried to intervene and rescue the three men. But villagers didn’t heed them and started grabbing the trio. A police constable ended up with a fractured leg and Kamalanagar CPI was also injured in the melee. Police resorted to a lathi charge and brought the situation under control.Azam, rapidly losing consciousness, was rushed to an Aurad hospital but died en route. Salman and Salaah were taken to Hyderabad and admitted at a private hospital.Devaraju said 30 persons were arrested and WhatsApp group administrator Manoj of Murki village, in whose group the video went viral, was held. One person who sent the video to the group was also arrested.

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