A woman in her thirties was assaulted by a group of men and women on suspicion of being a "child lifter" in North 24-Parganas’ Ashokenagar while she was on her way home on a bicycle late on Friday, police said.

Rumours about a gang of men and women abducting children have been doing rounds through social media platforms over the past couple of weeks, a senior officer of the Barasat police district said.

Barasat superintendent of police Pratiksha Jharkhariya said 15 people, three of them women, had been arrested in connection with the assault on the woman on Friday night.

All 15 have been charged under various sections of the IPC including 307 (attempt to murder), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 333 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt to a public servant with intent to prevent that person from discharging duty) among others.

On Friday, Barasat police announced a helpline to report such rumour-mongering on social media and a WhatsApp helpline number — 9163766694 — where people can report suspicious posts on social media platforms.

“We are actively conducting a campaign on social media. On the ground teams equipped with microphones are making announcements requesting people not to fall for these rumours. No gang of child lifters is active in the area and people should not fall for these rumours. We have launched a WhatsApp helpline and received several alerts,” said Jharkhariya.

Ashokenagar is 21km away from Barasat.

Till Saturday, three incidents of people getting assaulted by large groups of men and women who suspected them to be child lifters have been recorded in Barasat and Ashokenagar.

On Wednesday, three persons were assaulted in two areas of Barasat by a mob.

From Barasat and Ashokenagar, 34 people have been arrested so far for assaults. Four persons including two administrators of a Facebook group have been arrested for spreading rumours on social media.

A senior officer of the Barasat police district said they received several alerts on their WhatsApp number regarding posts on Facebook that had content about the alleged gang of child lifters.

Till Saturday, 52 Facebook posts had been taken down after the cops got in touch with the Facebook authorities.

“We are in touch with Facebook and have sought IP addresses of the accounts that are being used to spread such posts and videos,” said the officer.

According to the officer, the cops have traced several other men and women who had used their Facebook accounts to upload content aimed at creating panic by spreading rumours about gangs of child lifters.

Those that have been identified are being tracked down, the officer added.

The police have also set up pickets in front of schools at Barasat, Ashokenagar and Habra as well.

Barrackpore assault

A man in his late 20s who works as a labourer was assaulted in Barrackpore’s Mohanpur by a large group of men and women, police said.

A senior officer of the Barrackpore Commissionerate said the man had allegedly passed lewd remarks at a woman.

Some residents, however, said the man was assaulted as he was suspected to be a child lifter.

The police have arrested three men in connection with the assault.