A woman (40) was killed on Saturday by a stone-pelting mob in Jharkhand’s Sahibganj district on suspicion that she was part of a gang of hair-choppers targeting women, police said. The killing follows rumours of hair-chopping that have spread across north India, including Delhi, Rajasthan and UP. Police in these three states have made it clear that these were just baseless rumours, with no credible evidence. District officials in Sahibganj said they, too, had conducted an awareness campaign on this issue recently.
Police from the Radha Nagar station said the woman was part of a group of four, including two men in their 50s and a boy aged around 12, who were seeking alms at around 10.30 am in Mirpur village when they were surrounded by the mob.
“There were rumours in the area that a woman’s hair had been chopped. The villagers were looking for the culprits, when they spotted these four. Soon, a mob gathered, locked the men and the boy in a room, and began beating the woman,” said a senior administration official.
