Indian police said on Monday they had arrested dozens of people for violence and vandalism during violent protests this week sparked by the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in an eastern state, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
Police said an innocent man was lynched by an angry mob.
Protesters blocked roads and set vehicles on fire after the girl's body was found in a lake on Sunday, a day after she went missing, in the town of Baruipur in West Bengal state, about 30 kilometers from Kolkata.
"We have so far arrested 35 people for violence and vandalism "(...) more involved are being identified through multiple videos that have gone viral on the internet," senior police officer Arvind Kumar Anand told Reuters.
Separately, police said they had shot dead one of the four men arrested for the rape and murder of the girl. The suspect, Prabhas Mondal, was shot dead in the early hours of Wednesday while trying to escape after being taken to the crime scene as part of the investigation, police said.
Mondal's mother refused to accept his body, saying she did not want to take him home because he "had not done anything good."
"My son has already been punished for the sin he committed," she said in a television interview.
Indian media quoted the family of one of the other suspects as saying he was innocent and had been arrested due to mistaken identity. There were no reports of comment from the families of the other two suspects.
Suvendu Adhikari, who became West Bengal's chief minister after the Bharatiya Janata Party won the election, said the family of the other two suspects was not immediately available. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party won the state's elections in May, saying there would be "no leniency" for those who commit crimes such as rape and violence, or for those who beat to death "innocent" people who "have committed no sin." The case has again highlighted concerns about the safety of women and girls in India, despite tougher laws introduced after the gang rape and murder of a 22-year-old woman in Delhi in 2012, which sparked nationwide protests. Four men convicted of the murder were hanged. West Bengal came under intense scrutiny in 2024 after the rape and murder of a female intern at the R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital. in Kolkata sparked nationwide protests over women's safety.