'Women in UP targeted, beaten over suspicion of being child lifters': Mayawati

New Delhi: Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Wednesday batted for strong laws to check mob lynchings and stringent actions against the accused.

Taking to Twitter, the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said, "In Uttar Pradesh, mob lynching has taken a new form. Now innocent women are being targeted by the mob. There is a panic among people as women are being beaten up and killed over suspicion of being child-lifters. The state government must take strict actions against such wrongdoings."

The statement from the BSP supremo came just hours after a woman was thrashed by a mob in Loni area on suspicion of her being the child-lifter.

During preliminary investigation, it was found that the victim was shopping with her grandson when people attacked her.

The mob attacked the woman after a fake video of her lifting a child went viral on social media platforms.

A similar incident of mob violence took place in Shamli also. A group of five women who had come to sell their products were beaten up by the locals on suspicion of being child-lifters.

"We belong to Gujarat and had come here for business purposes. But the locals started beating us. We are not child-lifters," one of the five women had said while speaking to ANI.