Disabled Indian woman tied to tractor and beaten to death by lynch mob 'after being mistaken for child kidnapper'
Victim brutally pelted with stones and beaten with sticks during horrific three-hour ordeal
Your support helps us to tell the story
As your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.
Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn't have the resources to challenge those in power.
Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November election
Andrew Feinberg
White House Correspondent
A lynch mob tied a disabled woman to a tractor and beat her to death after reportedly falsely accusing her of kidnapping a child.
The victim, aged 42, was brutally pelted with stones and lashed with sticks for three hours by villagers in West Bengal, India.
Footage of her horrific ordeal came after a local father wrongly claimed she had been trying to snatch his 10-year-old daughter on Tuesday, according to India Today.
The mob seized the woman and bound her to the tractor with ropes before ripping off her clothes and shaving her head in an apparent bid to humiliate her.
They had wrongly accused her of involvement in the disappearance of a child in Mithipur-Panagarh, a village in the Murshidabad district, last month.
The victim, who reportedly had severe learning difficulties, tried to protest her innocence as she was beaten to death. She was rushed to hospital after police arrived but died of her injuries.
Detectives launched a murder investigation and arrested several villagers, although none have yet been charged.
A police spokesman said: "A mob beat up the woman after a rumour spread that she was trying to lift children from the village.
"We have started investigating the murder case. We are trying to identify the people involved in the lynching as well as those who spread the rumour."
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.