Daijiworld Media Network

Jamshedpur, Jul 18: Chaos prevailed in Jharkhand's Saraikela-Kharswan district after rumours of officials of a company planning child sacrifices made the rounds here on Monday July 18.

The villagers, on hearing the news of a man entering a steel plant at Totatalwadi and Bengadih near here with two children, barged into the plant's premises and assaulted its officials, injuring seven of them. The chief construction manager was also beaten up.

Police rushed to the spot and tried to bring the mob under control. But the situation went out of hand and the police had to fire in the air to scare them off. Three policemen were injured in the clashes.

The villagers assaulted the man who took the two children, aged around four, inside the plant premises, after he failed to give satisfactory answers to their questions, sources said.

The people also accused the company of sacrificing a 12-yearl-old boy earlier when its efforts to install new equipment at the plant went in vain.

The police later took the man and the children for questioning. The man denied the rumours of child sacrifice and claimed that he had come to the plant to meet his brother along with the children.

The police, however, were tight-lipped about the actual intention in taking the children to the plant.