Phulbani: Villagers nabbed three non-Odia men Thursday on the suspicion that they might be child lifters at Sarangada under Baliguda tehsil in Kandhamal district.
Later, the police rescued all of them.
According to reports, the locals spotted three men wandering suspiciously in the locality. A group of villagers followed them and asked their whereabouts.
When they failed to give proper answers to the queries, the villagers suspected them being child lifters and detained them.
Later a police team pacified the villagers and rescued the three.
There has been a surge in cases of people being attacked by locals on the suspicion of child lifting.
A youth was critically injured June 1 after two miscreants slit his throat at Ponaro village in Umerkote block of Nabarangpur district. The victim was rushed to a local hospital in critical condition.
In another case, police May 26 rescued six non-Odia youths who were severely thrashed by the locals. Police said six youths from Tamil Nadu were roaming in the Gate Bazar area near Nua Bazar when they were detained by locals. When they failed to communicate properly, the villagers thrashed them on the suspicion that they might be from a gang of child lifters.
The Director-General of Police (DGP) RP Sharma had issued a seven-point advisory requesting people not to spread rumours about child-lifting gangs and assured that no such gang exists in Odisha.
PNN