What comes as the latest in brutal assaults on suspicion of child theft, locals near Periapalayam thrashed Muthupattu Raju, a 20-year-old man from Virudhunagar district who had traveled to Chennai searching for a job. Investigators on Sunday reportedly arrested Sakthivel, 24, and Vallarasu, 23, for the assault.
The two men triggered the misgivings about the stranger, who they suspected was from a northern state. They also summoned their friends to the spot before beating him up around 7.30pm on Friday.
Recently, two people, including an elderly woman lost their lives in similar cases where locals suspected them to be child-traffickers. The series of assaults is the result of few fake news that were circulated on WhatsApp with photos of random people and they were claimed to be child traffickers.
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