In a shocking incident, a 'mentally ill' woman was brutally roughed up by a mob of over 20 men in Daurala locality of Meerut over rumours of her being a child lifter, officials said on Monday.

The incident occurred on September 19 but it came to light after a video of the mob beating her up went viral on Sunday evening. The video shows a group of men holding the women by her hands and legs and tossing her in the air at a sugarcane farm.

As per cops, they rescued her from the mob and consequently a medical examination was conducted on her that revealed, she was mentally ill,

"She was hardly able to take her name, she could not tell from where she had come; we sent her to a women's shelter home till the time we are investigating her whereabouts," said a Meerut police official.

The official added that the primary investigation revealed that someone from the village had seen her talking to a toddler and spread the word around that she was a child lifter,

"In a matter of minutes, the public gathered and taking the law in hands they roughed her up," he added.

The horrific scenes of violence by men on the 'mentally ill' women received huge backlash from people across social media. After the video of the incident went viral, several twitter users sought information about the case.

In a statement issued on Twitter, Meerut police on Monday said, "The incident is one week old, an FIR has been registered in the incident and  efforts are being made to arrest the accused."

Incidents of child lifting and rumour mongering have suddenly spiked in several northern states, including Uttar Pradesh (UP), leading to unwarranted incidents of mob lynching in which as many as 11 people have died so far after being beaten by public. The gravity of these rumours and the havoc wreaked due to this is such that the Yogi Adityanath government last week decided to slap National Security Act (NSA) against people found involved in rumour mongering over child lifting.

Meanwhile in Bareilly, a woman was given sedatives mixed with `prasad’ and taken to sugarcane fields in unconscious state where she was gang-raped by the accused.

According to the victim's father, on September 18, at 11 am, his daughter was going to the tailor's shop to get clothes. On the way, Jabir of the village gave him some intoxicant mixed in `prasad’. After she fainted, Jabir took her to the sugarcane field where he and his accomplice Rinku Lala raped her. When she regained conscious, both the accused again raped her after taking her at gun point. He alleged that both the accused kept the girl hostage in the field for two days and raped her several times.

Two days later, on the night of September 21, the accused threatened to kill her if she informed anyone about the incident and fled, leaving the victim outside her aunt's house.

The victim's father said that he along with his family was getting his daughter treated at a private hospital. The father further claimed that on Sunday evening, when his other daughter was coming out of the hospital, both Jabir and Rinku stopped them and threatened them that they had objectionable videos of the victim and if they took legal action, they would upload it on social media.

He said that he went to lodge a report at Bhuta police station but the cops tried to pressurise them for a compromise and refused to register a case. He also alleged that the police forcibly took the thumb impression of the victim's father on a plain paper.

When the Bhuta police did not register the report, they filed a complaint with the ADG and SSP, and on their direction, the local police registered a case of rape and also booked the accused under the SC, ST Act, and arrested them.