New Delhi: Four sadhus were thrashed by villagers in Maharashtra's Sangli dsitrict on Tuesday after they were suspected of being child lifters. The incident came to light when a video showing some people beating the sadhus with sticks went viral on social media platforms.
The sadhus from Uttar Pardesh were on their way to Pandharpur in the neighbouring Solapur district in a vehicle but lost their way. They approached a child to ask for direction, but the boy who couldn't speak any language other than Kannada raised an alarm. This led the villagers to believe they were child lifters and began to thrash the sadhus.
A day later, police took suo-moto cognisance of it and registered a case against 18 to 20 people after the video went viral, an official said on Wednesday, according to PTI. The police detained six persons in connection with the incident which took place near Lawanga village in Jath tehsil of Sangli on Tuesday, he said. The sadhus did not file a complaint and left the place after the confusion was cleared in the presence of police.
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"The sadhus did not file any complaint. But we took suo moto cognisance and registered a case against 18 to 20 people, out of whom six persons have been identified and detained," assistant police inspector Pankaj Pawar from Umadi police station was quoted by PTI.
Talking about the incident he said the villagers had mistaken them for child lifters. "People from the village gathered there and caught hold of the sadhus. There was an argument. It escalated quickly and the sadhus were allegedly beaten up with sticks by locals", he added, as per PTI.
Following this, a police team reached the spot and found that the incident took place due to a misunderstanding. The sadhus belonged to Panch Dashnam Juna Akhada in Mathura, who were on their pilgrimage to various places, ANI reported.
(With ANI and PTI inputs)