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Bidar Lynching: Karnataka Cop Recalls How They Had To Plead With Mob To Save Victims

Scary.
Screenshot from Youtube

While a 32-year-old techie from Hyderabad was lynched to death in last week's mob violence in Bidar, latest reports about the incident suggest that a policeman posted in the area on Friday managed to save four others from the mob.

Police constable Mallikarjun, who belongs from Karnataka's Murki, where the incident took place has said that he was shocked by the anger and was surprised that the people from his own village could turn so violent.

Speaking to The News Minute, Mallikarjun said that while he and the other cops were horrified by the anger shown by the mob -- which he said was about 2,500 people -- they tried to pacify the mob telling them that the law will take its course.

Apart from Mohammad Azam, the man who was killed, there were four others that Mallikarjun and his colleagues managed to save.

Azam who is was a techie in Hyderabad had gone to Bidar with his friends for a picnic. The villagers became suspicious of them being child lifters -- fuelled by rumours of WhatsApp -- after they were seen offering chocolates to children in the Bootakula village. But as the men left the village and went towards Murki, residents of Bootakula are said to have informed their friends in Murki about their suspicions about the mob.

Police constable Mallikarjun says that the police were about 10 people agains a mob of thousands. But they somehow managed to get the others out of the situation.

"When we saw that there were no machetes or rifles in the car, we began talking to the mob and pleaded with them to disperse. I told people that the law would take care of the matter but they did not listen. The people accused us of colluding with child abductors and that they had to protect their own," he told The News Minute.

The report says that Mallikarjun himself has suffered serious injuries including a broken knee cap, and bruises on other part of the body.

A report in NDTV says that in a new video of the lynching that has emerged, the police were seen pleading with the mob with folded hands.

The NDTV report says 28 people have been arrested for the incident.

Read Mallikarjun's account of the incident on The News Minute here.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.