Maharashtra: Suspecting them to be child lifters, villagers thrash 4 sadhus in Sangli

Police probe revealed the villagers attacked the sadhus suspecting them to be a gang of criminals involved in kidnapping children. The arrests were made after an FIR was lodged at Umadi police station Wednesday.

Sangli SP Dikshit Gedam said, "We've not received any complaint/formal report, but are looking into viral videos & verifying facts. Necessary action to be taken." (ANI Digital/ Twitter screen grab)

Seven people have been arrested after a group of four sadhus (seers) hailing from Uttar Pradesh were allegedly roughed up by local residents of Lavangi village in Jat taluka of Sangli in Maharashtra on Tuesday morning.

Police probe revealed the villagers attacked the sadhus suspecting them to be a gang of criminals involved in kidnapping children. The arrests were made after an FIR was lodged at Umadi police station Wednesday.

Maharashtra: Monks attacked in Sangli on suspicion of being child-lifters, police probe underway

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Police have identified the sadhus as Nemchand Nath Gosavi, Raju Gosavi, Pappu Gosavi and Premshankar Gosavi. Police said the four of them had gone to Karnataka for a pilgrimage in a car.

On their way back from Karnataka, they were heading towards the temple town of Pandharpur via Sangli district when, around 10.30 am on Tuesday, they stopped at Lavangi village to ask for directions.

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A local youngster, who had earlier seen a video on child theft, suspected the sadhus to be a part of a gang involved in kidnapping children and informed other villagers about it, police said.

Soon, many villagers gathered and started thrashing the sadhus with belts. On receiving information, a team from Umadi police station rushed to the spot and rescued the seers. A video of sadhus being beaten up went viral on social media, causing ripples in social and political circles of the state.

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