Before dumping the body, the alleged killers had tied the man’s hands and legs with ropes and also tied stones to his neck and waist.

Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh Police have arrested 10 men for allegedly beating to death a 27-year-old youth in Singhwar village under Samnapur Police Station in Dindori district suspecting him to be a child lifter.

Mistaking him for a child lifter they beat him and strangled him. In an attempt to hide the crime they dumped the body in a well owned by one Prem Singh Gond. The 10 accused have been sent to judicial custody.

The incident took place on July 28 but came to light on August 1 after the body of an unidentified man surfaced in a farm well on August 1. Before dumping the body, the alleged killers had tied the man’s hands and legs with ropes and also tied stones to his neck and waist.

Investigations later revealed that four villagers, who were consuming liquor around 9 pm on July 28, had found Mukesh Gond, a resident of Kui village in Anuppur district, loitering near the village school. When they asked his name he reportedly hid behind the school. Two of the four accused caught him and at least six more villagers later joined them carrying sticks.

Mistaking him for a child lifter they beat him and strangled him. In an attempt to hide the crime they dumped the body in a well owned by one Prem Singh Gond. The 10 accused have been sent to judicial custody.

A mentally unstable woman was lynched in Badgad village in Singrauli district last month. The police had arrested 14 villagers in connection with the lynching of the woman.