Software engineer beaten to death by Mob in Karnataka after WhatsApp rumours

A 32-year-old software engineer was beaten to death and three others – one of them a Qatar national — were seriously injured over WhatsApp-driven rumours of child kidnapping in Karnataka’s Bidar. The police said the mob frenzy started after the man from Qatar was seen distributing chocolates to local children. The police have arrested 32 people.
The techie, Mohammad Azam, had gone for a drive on Friday with three others when they were stopped at the roadside. Mr Azam’s friend Mohammad Salam, who was from Qatar, was seen handing chocolates to children.

Rumours of child lifting were doing the rounds in the area and seeing the chocolates being handed out, residents of a nearby village, Murki, sent messages on a WhatsApp group.