Guwahati, June 30: In yet another case of mob violence due to child-lifting rumours, a woman in Assam's Sonitpur district was tied to a pole and beaten up by villagers on suspicion of being a child abductor. The incident was reported from Katani village, located 25-km away from the district headquarters of Tezpur.

The Thelamara police station authorities were intimated at 11:10pm on Friday night about a woman detained by villagers in Katani and being physically assaulted on suspicion of being a child-lifter. Read here to know about the psychology behind mob lynchings in India.

Numal Mahatta, additional superintendent of police, rushed to the site where the woman was tied up and thrashed by locals. She was rescued and sent to the Tezpur Medical College, where she is currently being treated. The police said she had suffered injuries on her face due to the beatdown.

The identity of the woman was yet to be known by the time this report was published. Mahatta said the woman is unable to speak -- which has hindered the process of her identification. Her inability to communicate could be the reason behind the villagers assuming her to be a child-lifter, the police official said.

"Rumours are doing the rounds and people are living in fear. The woman seems to be an outsider and that may have led to the attack,” Mahatta told HT, further adding that the woman might be migrant labourer working in the tea farms.

No complaint has been registered in the case so far. The police might register a suo moto FIR after the preliminary investigation concludes.

The mob violence in Assam comes in the backdrop of at least 16 lynching incidents being reported from all parts of the nation in the past couple of months. In Assam, two youths - Abhijit Nath and Nilotpal Das - were assaulted to death on June 8 by villagers, who accused them of being child abductors.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 30, 2018 05:08 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).